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Walmart in bed with Microsoft? Walmart says NO to Firefox, Mac, Apple
Last week, Walmart launched their online video download service. Immediately there were posts that the service did not work with the Firefox or Safari browsers. There was a collective, "WTF" when this happened as this is 2007, not 1997. Back then it was "accepted" for applications to work with only a specific browser or platform. Now it appears that reports are out that Walmart has turned off the ability to get into the application at all by Firefox, Safari or any other browser it does not like.
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And I can confirm that I cannot access the site via Firefox. So I ask, is this because of bad coding or because Walmart is working with Microsoft? Jonathan asks the same question. I certainly hope it is bad coding. But for the largest company in the world to not test their applications is just piss poor. In addition, with the requirements for SOX, who signed off on this going live? I can only imagine that in my past corporate life, heads would have rolled. (It appears some of the issues might be due to the DRM they are using is IE only) |
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With the "early adopters" generally using non-ie browsers, this will certainly hurt their ability for this to succeed. I hope this is only temporary. I am sure Netflix and iTunes must be loving this. Today any "f-up" is immediately spread across the web in mere minutes. I would have liked to see a message from Walmart that says this:
We understand that there are some issues using our download service in browsers other than Internet Explorer. We are quickly working on resolving the issues and appreciate your patience. Enter your email address and we will notify you once the service is functional in the other browsers and we will include a free download coupon for the trouble. Thank you for your interest in Walmart.
Updated 5pm: appears they are blocking apple completely — from walmart customer service:
And Walmart video download service does not support the Macintosh Operating Systems as the video that you download requires Digital Rights Management 10 (DRM 10) software, which is not compatible with the Macintosh operating system.
WalMart’s behaves like big bullies. They get upset with you and you’re browser’s switched off. If a vendor doesn’t bend over to their every whim, well, you’re on their S*!t list. That and other reasons is why I decided to ditched them entirely more than a year ago. They don’t get a dime of my money, ever.
I can’t see any difference to this and forcing people to have a certain brand of auto to park in their parking lot and shop. I guarantee Walmart wouldn’t get away with this, so why is it they can get away with forcing people to use a certain OS and application?
They cannot “force” you to use something else. Simply shop somewhere else. I will be.
So how is it that Apple can get away with forcing people to use Itunes to access their music store? Isn’t that forcing user’s to use a certain “brand” of software to shop in their store?
Well, I can’t say I’ll boycott their store, but I’ll definitely boycott their online stuff.
I don’t believe this to be pro-microsoft as it is lazy/bad developers or incompetent management.
I guess this means they’re not aiming to take out itunes if they don’t even allow apple/safari…
Hey, you know what? It DOES sound silly!
As always on Slashdot, you used the often-abused car analogy and said something utterly stupid.
A “brand of car,” such as Toyota or Ford does not equate to Internet Explorer primarily due to market share. Had you compared the combined “Safari and Firefox” to BMW, which a minority own in the USA (and none of which are Walmart customers), then your argument might sound reasonable, though still incorrect.
The site is currently down for maintenance ?????
as of 11:49 AM EST
No, it’s not.
Apple isn’t “getting away” with anything. Don’t you use Windows Media Player to listen to all the other provided DRM-infested music? Where’s your choice there?
That’s the whole problem with DRM- it restricts you to using a specific technology, thus limiting you to a single piece of software.
That’s why I remove DRM from music I buy, regardless of those very fun-to-read-and-easy-to-understand-consumer-friendly “License Agreements”. Given that I only make personal use of it, I say it’s mine and I’ll use it however I like. If they have a problem with that, they can kiss my ass, because they have no legal way of proving it and suing me.
This is just a factor of using windows media with DRM. Look at many WMA based music stores that only support Internet Explorer because of the need to support version 10 license delivery.
This is not about coding the site to support a wide range of browsers, its about the fact that, if you are required by content owners to use DRM, then your only real choice is windows media DRM, and that only really works on IE6+7 on a PC.
I email Walmart Tech Support back when the site was all garbled in Firefox. Below is our exchange:
======================================
Good Morning,
I first learned of your new media download service from CNN this
morning. Unfortunetly my experience thus far is very disappointing. For some
reason your new website is not displaying correctly in my web browser. Please
see the attached screenshot. My browser is Mozilla Firefox 2.0 running on
Kubuntu Linux. Your help in resolving this issue is most appreciated.
Regards,
Jason
========================================
Dear Jason,
Thank you for contacting us at Walmart.com. Your comments and questions
are very important to us as we strive to meet your needs.
I understand from your email that you are unable to access our Website.
We currently support Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Vista (32 bit
only no Macintosh or Linux). As you are using Kubuntu Linux, you may not
be able to get access to our Website. To get the Walmart Video Download
Service you need to have Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Vista (32 bit
only).
Please feel free to contact us if you need further assistance.
Sincerely,
Sharon
Customer Service at WalMart.com
===================================
Thanks for the quick response. When will support for Linux be
available? It is unfortunate that we are not able to even view the
website properly (much less actually use the services).
It is surprising that Walmart would ignore the Linux user community
seeing as Walmart.com sells Linux-based computers. Does Walmart make it
clear that some of the computers that it sells are not compatible with
the service?
Below is a link to a Linspire PC that is currently for sale on
Walmart.com
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3762912
Regards,
Jason
====================================
Hi Jason,
Thank you for writing back to us.
Currently, the Walmart video download service is in a Beta testing
phase. We have forwarded your concern to our Research and Development
team. However, at this point of time, I will not be able to provide you
the information regarding when the support for Linux will be available.
I once again thank you for your valuable feedback which will help us
improve our services.
Sincerely,
Sharon
Customer Service at WalMart.com
Seriously, you guys are joking, right? So what if Wal-Mart doesn’t use Firefox or Safari, or even Mac? It’s their site. It’s their problem.
It’s their lost revenue.
I agree - I love iTunes however, I’m either forced to buy a Mac (I’m considering anyways) or use some flavor of Windows OS.
Why can’t Apple create a Unix (not just OSX version, and I didn’t say Linux either) of iTunes that works under ANY variant of Unix?
I simply will not maintane a Windows OS box just for iTunes - so, I’ll wait and move on.
seriously??! You people are seriously concerned with this?!
EFF WALMART!! They have atrocious business practices to being with aside from the download service!!
I would/will never shop at any Wal Mart store be it in person, online or thru a download service. I recommend you do the same.
They are a multinational corporation destroying lives in more countries than most of will ever see in person. Please rethink what it is you care about… movie downloads or the quality of life for some human beings.
Does it make any sense to let people use other browsers, when they won’t be able to use the site for its intended purpose?
The company had to choose a DRM platform and stick with it. If it requires a specific browser, which also happens to have the lion’s share of the market, then geez, they made a sound business decision.
I live in here Little Rock Arkansas and I can tell you that most of the people I know shop at Target, not WalMart (love hate relationship just like Clinton) and would LOVE for a Costco to show up!
Anyway, this will be another WalMart flop.
The problem is the demographic that WalMart sells to is not the target demogrphic this service/product should really be targeted at. WalMart kids themselves when they think non-techies (and you do need to be one to use a service like this just to watch a movie) will drop hard earned cash and struggle with getting this to work on a PC.
There are many factors that made iTunes successful but the most obvious one is ease of use. I have yet to find a windows product that made delivering music and video that easy. Forget DRM, that’s a by-product of RIAA and other paranoid companies.
Now that iTunes is well established, it has be come a defacto delivery channel for rich content that is EASY for consumers to use. Consumers (the majority) are like water, they will follow the path of least resistance to get to their destination.
Because if it was to work on any UNIX variant, then they would have to provide it in source code form; and it’s only by concealing the source code from the users that they can stop anybody else from working out how to decode iTunes songs.
It sucks, plain and simple.
But it will be blown wide open the day someone (1) gets it together to pick through the disassembly of the binary or (2) gets a working decompiler together.
This is why people bootleg. Your stuff won’t work with my stuff. This song won’t play with my device. You can’t use our device with this program. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO USE OUR SERVICE WITH THIS OR THIS OR THIS BROWSER. BULLSH*T. Thank you for pushing the people that would use your service even further away. And making the people who crack DRM and other services all the big companies put on products GODS in the eyes of us internet tube users.
Hey, This is the Communist Chinese distribution center we are talking about here. A lame duck of the industry. A company that hires less than 1/5th of the employee base per lane at super centers, and has over %95 of their products for sale that was made in China. Outsource America. A place where the cheap-o computers they sell come preloaded with spyware. Which is highly illegal.
I would suggest that the public shop at their local stores, that are locally owned, and if not possible to get it there, go to Freds or Dollar General. Neither of them have anything to do with The Chinese Distribution Center.
The one-browser one-OS idea sounds like something strait out of George Orwell’s 1984. I can imagine Bill Gates on the screen instead of Big Brother shouting… ONE OS… ONE MIND.. ONE BROWSER.. and THEN here come the Windows users marching in a Line, while looking strait ahead with emotionless faces, acting like zombies.
I own a computer repair shop, and I now have %98 of my customer base on FireFox. I personally use Slackware Linux & Tiger 10.4. If it doesn’t work with what I’ve got, then they have a problem.
JUST SAY NO TO WALMART.
All I can say is life sucks, move on. I shop at Wal-mart all the time because they have the cheapest prices. Yea if I need help with something it sucks but 99.9% of the time I just go in get what I need and get out.
As for their online services, I never even thought of using it. There are plenty of sites out there that don’t work right in Firefox. It would be stupid to say that all these websites are in Microsoft’s pocket because it just wouldn’t be true.
I have Firefox and IE buttons in my quick launch bar and I use them both. I use Firefox for my day to day stuff but if i can’t get something to open I will cut and paste the address into IE, do what I need to, and switch back to Firefox.
If you don’t like Wal-mart don’t shop there, If you don’t like IE don’t use it, but don’t assume that because you don’t like something everyone else is going to adopt your way of thinking
They are a multinational corporation destroying lives in more countries than most of will ever see in person. Please rethink what it is you care about… movie downloads or the quality of life for some human beings.
Care to clue the rest of us in on how they do that? That last statement is kind of like the politicans saying “Think of the children” when passing a pointless, usually harmful bill.
Anyway, back to the subject. This is a pretty big project, Walmart probably didn’t make it; a whole bunch of consultants did (lots of Ind Contractors managed by Accenture, Capgemini, or Deloitte Consulting) under some software/hardware company. Then that entity sold the service to Walmart.
Walmart probably had little choice or incentive to ask that it work on other browsers. They would be happy if 10% of the windows users out there use the service. Also, I am sure the content holders (MPAA) were a pain in the ass about the restrictions that had to be in place. Something that only MS was promising and Apple was being a pain about.
The Wal-Mart Video Downloads store is currently unavailable due to temporary site maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience
It is cheaper to develop for one platform as opposed to 5 or 6 (yes, FireFox does behave differently on Mac, Windows & PC). You first develop for the market leader, then if the tools and services are successful in that market, you begin to support additional markets.
Did iTunes support Windows at first? Heck no. This is a common theme in software development.
People gotta realize that most software and hardware is released for the Windows platform first. Yeah it sucks, but it is reality. If Mac or Linux had majority market share, they would see early releases.
Got many errors just trying to send an email - it appears that doesn’t work in Firefox either (at least, not for me). My Firefox tried to download the file when I clicked Send instead of calling the script.
Even when I did it in IE it ran into a bunch of errors, so I have no idea if my email sent or not (I’ll load IE in a bit and resend just to be sure). The site is “down for maintenance” right now anyways.
Here is the content of the email I sent:
I am unable to browse the video download portion of the Walmart.com website using my default browser of choice - Firefox. I do not use Microsoft Internet Explorer, and if that is the only way your video download service will work, I will not be using it. Period.
This is coming from someone that was very interested in seeing video download services come to the web, and was seriously considering switching from Netflix if the Walmart service was good.
Again, if you do not support Firefox browsers on your website for the Video Download service, I and probably thousands of other happy Firefox users will not use your video download service, and will instead use services like Netflix that do cater to web standards instead of coding to one specific browser.
You can pass along to your web team as well that Firefox has close to a 20% market share now, and probably much higher among the type of people that would be attracted to a video download service in the first place. It is not an issue to just sweep under the carpet. If Microsoft is influential in this decision, then this decision is COSTING WALMART MONEY.
If this persists, it will definitely make me reconsider my spending decisions in the brick and mortar world as well, and make me less likely to go to local Walmart or Sam’s Club stores, which I visit fairly often.
Happy Firefox user (except on Walmart.com),
My Name
Okay. You want to know what’s wrong with Wal-Mart, here it is.
Have you visited a small town lately? Your average American small town used to have a bustling downtown. Lots of locally owned stores where the people could do their shopping, and it was unusual for anyone to have to order out of town for everyday items. Groceries, hardware, cleaning supplies, appliances, whatever. The money from those sales stayed in town and got circulated back within the local economy.
Then Wal-Mart came in. They built their massive store on the outskirts of town, with a huge selection of all kinds of goods, all of it priced lower than any of the existing stores could afford to do. Suddenly all those locally owned stores aren’t doing so well. They can’t compete, and they start shutting down. Those jobs go away, and often the people end up working at Wal-Mart because that’s all they can get.
So, you end up with the deserted, boarded-up downtown that you see nowadays at the heart of so many small towns, and a massive, bustling Wal-Mart on the edge. Only now, that money ISN’T staying in town; it’s going to Bentonville instead. And all the people working there get crappy wages and health insurance and can only afford to shop at, guess what, Wal-Mart. Lather, rinse, repeat.
And this didn’t happen by accident. This is Wal-Mart’s explicit company policy. They deliberately come in and undersell all their local competition with the intention of destroying them so that they can hijack the entire local economy for their own benefit. Capitalism at its best, you might say. But that won’t make the townspeople any better off.
Wal-Mart is a parasite. They have exploited every imaginable flaw in our system and combined them with modern transportation and logistics to create a monster that destroys all in its path. They are very possibly the most evil corporation on the planet, and I don’t believe anyone with a conscience should be giving them a dime. They certainly will never get one from me.
Ha ha,
I still think this is a big ploy on Walmart’s part to get people to talk about the release of this product.
Everyone now knows about their video download service.
http://www.jeremydavid.com/old/2007/02/10/walmarts-clever-little-firefox-ploy/
I personally love shopping at walmart. I make purchases such as camping gear, gaming tables, sports equip etc… and then i return it immediately after im done (no more than a few days later). Walmart has a lovely no questions asked return policy. Basically anything non perishable i have returned for a FULL refund. I NEVER buy anything to keep from this abomination of a store.
I say…use em and let them deal with the cut profit margins from “open items”
So what? Just another reason to stay away from Wal-Mart. If it was a service that was never available to us in the first place then trust me, you will NOT miss it. You’ve survived this long without it and it’s not going to kill you to continue not having it.
That would be OS/X, Linux and BSD users.
Ironic that they sell computers with Linux installed, but you can’t access their video site from it. Talk about MISSING a tripple-play!
Chris.
Hahaha, you’re all suckers for thinking Firefox, Safari, or Apple is better. Hahaha.
What else can I say? You have said it so well, except that they also devastate 3rd world countries. What of the worker wages and working conditions in China? What about the environmental consequences of their practices? Not to speak about the fact that they mostly sell junk which must be replaced quickly.
Please watch the dvd on Walmart practices and please stop shopping at Walmart.
I agree that it sucks that the “American self-sufficient small town” is dying. It has been for some time, it will happen eventually one way or another. Sad to say, but according to the times, they are just old, inefficient, slow to adapt, and obviously just don’t provide a good enough value to survive. And it isn’t “Walmart” that is the root cause of this change. No, it is the very fundamental idea that is behind your last statement and ingrained into every human out there (possibly with the exception of the Dalai Lama).
…I don’t believe anyone with a conscience should be giving them a dime. They certainly will never get one from me.
The idea is that people WANT things, they have varing WANTS, and not all their WANTS can be satisfied cause they have limited resources to allocate to their WANTS. You want to NOT shop at Walmart because of such and such. Unfortunately, others are willing to shop at Walmart for such and such. For me, it frees up some resources in terms of time and cash to reallocate to my other wants. Sure, I and others might be losing some value in terms of “friendly face”, “around the corner”, “customer service”, etc. but obviously they aren’t worth the price differential.
You say I don’t have a conscience, but it isn’t a matter of conscience, it is a matter of trading something of equal value and in the case of the Mom&Pops you talk about, I am getting the short end of the stick.
Walmart isn’t FORCING us to leave Mom&Pop, we are freely CHOOSING to do it. So Walmart isn’t destroying “Small town America,” the customers are by NOT shopping there. As a whole, the customers are clearly saying “Small town America just isn’t offering a good value” period!
Walmart is just a player in the system… one of many. Target, JCPenny, CVS, Delta, CostCo, you, me, and yes even Mom&Pop are the same in different ways. The very fact that ALL of us go into a shop, wholeseller, or country and NOT say “I want that 99 cent toothbrush for $50.00″ makes us equally guilty.
Walmart is just very large, visible, and bloody too damn good at what it does (only because of their supply chain system). So when we want to point fingers for our changing world which we are the root cause of, it is just an easy target to blame.
…They’ve just eliminated THREE operating systems from their site…
They’ve just eliminated a growing number of customers. No sweat off my brow if they don’t care about large numbers of customers. They’ll make less money. Should bother THEM, however.
I think you’re totally ignorant for thinking ANY browser isn’t better than Internet Explorer. I’d like to point out that virtually all tech competent people don’t use Internet Explorer. Why? because Internet Explorer simply sucks. So I think Walmart will only be getting business from Grandmas who don’t know any better and still use Internet Explorer.
Poor Dave…sadly he just doesn’t get it. Or perhaps he’s just a troll. Either way, he’s a sad man.
If you enable the debug menu on Safari and set the user agent to IE you can get past the opening page. They don’t seem to check your browser once you are in the site. They use an interesting Java applet to
view some search results. Take a look at this:
http://mediadownloads.walmart.com/mmce/jsp/movieConnection.jsp?frag=Sandra%20Bullock
WalMart does not have to make a fuss because WalMart’s suppliers absorb the losses due to returned merchandise. The products returned to WalMart are either handed back to WalMart’s supplier, or destroyed. In either case WalMart adds the items to the credit side of their account with the supplier. WalMart requires an advantageous return policy from its suppliers. WalMart’s return policy must be well understood by any supplier starting a relationship with WalMart.
… they don’t want my business. It’s stupid, but there are others.
I don’t see it as a problem. I will just spend my money somewhere else.
I understand that a couple of movie companies are getting into direct marketing of thier product. I wonder if they will learn from Wallmart’s failure?
I can report that the Wal-Mart video download site works on Kubuntu 6.10 running Konqueror 3.5.6. Like a previous poster said about Safari, in Konqueror, you change the Browser Identification for http://mediadownloads.walmart.com (NOT http://www.walmart.com) to IE 6.0 on Windows XP. This seems to work fine. Haven’t tested whether the downloads play in MPlayer, etc.
Konqueror can report that it’s IE on XP too, just tried it, was able to view the movie listings and add to my kart. didn’t try to d/l it though.
Using OpenSuse 10.2 X64
Jack
I thought that Firefox was truer to the basic standards. Shouldn’t something coded for FF work in IE by default? Yeah I know it won’t support MS specific DRM, perhaps that’s the real reason….
I have the new tab on my Netfilx page offering me the option to watch a movie online from them. I use Firefox, but not on Netflix. Requires IE - wants to install an ActiveX DRM client. Said no thank you and went about my other business.
I still get my DVDs from them, just won’t watch them online.
I could name 100 other reasons for not shopping Wal-Mart. I quit shopping Wal-Mart years ago and this is just another reason not to shop there. Let them bully someone else, because it won’t be me.
Actually, I am a tech savvy person, and I like IE. Why? Because it causes me no problems and it’s easier to use. Now some might say that the virii and trojans can get me, but I have a good piece of AV software. None of the Norton or McAfee crap. Simply, I like the way IE looks, and I like the way it works.
Dear Walmart-
When I attempted to view Video Downloads (using my trusted FIREFOX browser), I received the following totally bizarre message:
—————————————————————
Unsupported Browser
We’re sorry …
Our website requires the browser Internet Explorer version 6 or higher. It appears that you are using Firefox, Safari, or another browser that Wal-Mart Video Downloads doesn’t currently support. Click here to get Internet Explorer for free from Microsoft.
Thank You
—————————————————————
This is unmitigated BS- Internet Explorer is not a safe and effective browser in the opinion of millions of users, including me. If this was an oversight by IT staff of the biggest retailers on the planet, such incompetence is frankly beyond belief. If this was a conscious, cynical business decision, it gives me a (another) good reason to ask my friends to shop elsewhere.
Please give us a compelling reason why you shouldn’t kiss our business good-bye.
Thank you-
Sincerely,
Ed Pontius, MD
…all you care about is low prices. You don’t care what Wal-Mart does to achieve those low prices, and you don’t care how many people get hurt in the process.
Personally, I’m willing to pay a little bit more if it means my neighbors might be able to keep their jobs.
You’re wrong. It IS a matter of conscience.
Dave, for someone who made such an incendiary comment initially, you are really coming across quite defensive with your response to the responses.
I think many might mock you for your choice to use IE and stick with MS in general when there is some alternative that is arguably equal to or better than a MS product (in the case of Firefox, I’d have to argue that it is better than IE b/c of the add-ons, apart from being *more* secure (I’d always have AV software running, even on a Mac, which I do)). Others might agree with you that IE is a better choice (not my case, as you might guess). I think you would probably agree that you should feel free to choose…well, why don’t you let others do the same without trying to cause them any grief, eh?
In any event, you probably shouldn’t throw stones since it seems that you are writing on a glass computer.
If they won’t let you shop, it’s not you boycotting them.
Bye bye 30% of their potential customers, Firefox just passed 30% of the browser market (figs from w3schools).
And if as I expect they use MS DRM and licensing you make me feel so wanted.
I would use it if it was released under a ogg.theroa format or even the xvid format. but I don’t expect that to happen the only hope is that the record company’s allow music without DRM if so then give the movie house 3 years to catch up I mite get what I want.
No DRM at the very least, Open Formats would be nice but it taken MS over 10 years to produces word with a near open format, so how long be for the audio and video market adopt one.
Unfortunately users are clueless to the format as long as it works first time most will use it. unless the Playstation 3 allows for film downloads without using the blueray coding then there maybe hope.
yes, who do you think you’re hurting, not walmart at all. They absorb none of that cost. In fact they are the ones who get interest on your money while you’re stealing the use of whatever product it was you were too cheap to buy.
So get off your high horse and admit to us all that you aren’t a crusading subversive, but a cheap, loser thief who is killing many smaller companies who have no choice but to abide by Walmarts rules since they need the shelf space.
How did you come to the figure of Walmart being the biggest company in the world?
Fortune 500 ranks it number 2, Forbes 500 at 10 and Forbes 2000 isn’t in the top 10 (these were 2006 figures).
Not to detract from your article mind you, it’s a valid point raised and Walmart should be ashamed of either:
a) bad code design that does not work on more than one browser.
or
b) intentionally denying users of anything but IE access to their site.
They should correct it immediately or expect a backlash of bad PR.
(same as subject)
… just don’t use their service. America believes in the market economy, right? So therefore, don’t buy from them as they use restrictive DRM and go somewhere else.
They should get the message pretty quickly.
You can get in with Opera…
Edit site preferences (for mediadownloads.walmart.com), set Browser Identification to ‘mask as IE’
not that i’d buy anything from them anyway!!
hurrah, Lexx.
Look at all the foxtards crying about wal-mart. Nobody feels bad for you, Firefox sucks and I don’t blame them for not supporting it.
Opera 9 has a very nice feature - masking as IE. If You press F12, choose site preferences then you can see Network tab with drop-down at the bottom. Choose “Mask as Internet Explorer” there while being on walmart and Video Download will work just fine!
How does Wal-Mart determine the browser other than by looking at the User Agent string? Supposing one wanted to actually support Wal-Mart, surely all he would have to do is forge an IE6/IE7 User Agent string, and browse at his leisure?
(Wal-Mart sux)
Try this alteration to the analogy:
They allow gasoline cars being powered by ExxonMobil gas, but ban
cars that are electric, or based on anything other than a closed-
source design, from their store parking lot. They put a gas station
at the gates, and prospective customers have to let an associate
check their oil, before they will be allowed to enter the parking lot.
I’m just guessing that any browser that uses Microsoft’s HTML component will work with their site (since it acts like IE).
of the Firefox hater.
See also that “Dave” character further back.
Well, there’s a pretty simple solution for Firefox users, a plugin called IETab or one called User Agent Switch. IETab lets you render a page exactly as IE would, uses IE rendering engine and User Agent Switch just lets you fool the server by sending bogus browser info to it. I know, I know, they’re supposed to cater for all browsers, but that would just make life too easy…
“The company had to choose a DRM platform and stick with it. If it requires a specific browser, which also happens to have the lion’s share of the market, then geez, they made a sound business decision.
A business decision that prevents the sorts of people who are most likely to be willing to buy movies online from *using* the store, not to mention all those Apple customers Walmart clearly wants a share of, doesn’t seem likely to prove sound at all.
On the other hand, if we all took his advice and started returning everything to Wal-Mart, eventually those suppliers (who are actually getting burned by this) would realize that there’s no advantage to being involved with Wal-Mart, and pull out before their profits suffered too much. This would leave Wal-Mart with fewer vendors, which would ultimately hurt them. Especially when they start courting future vendors and those vendors refuse to agree to the horrible returns policy because of how much it was eating into the profits of the other vendors. Over a long enough term and a great enough scale, this would actually be an effective method of hurting Wal-Mart.
I realize that this process of hurting the vendor to hurt Wal-Mart is unfortunate, as I have no desire to punish anyone but Wal-Mart themselves, but I’ll take any strategy I can for sticking it to a company that treats its employees and customers as poorly as Wal-Mart does.
I haven’t tested this, so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work!
If you turn on the Debug menu in Safari (it requires some command-line tweaking… google “Safari Debug Menu” for instructions), there’s an option that allows you to change what browser Safari identifies itself as to web sites. I believe there are options include sending headers as if it was IE6 on XP. Now, the site might still not work correctly due to differences in JavaScript implementation, but it should at least allow you into the site.
Anyone want to try it and see if it works?
It IS a matter of conscience.
I could not agree more. I am happy to pay a few dollars more on my bill if I know the employees are going to get a real living wage or my apples come from down the street from my neighbor not 3000 miles away (how much fossil fuels does it take to trasport then 3000 miles).
If it means I have to buy a little less things I am more than willing to trade that for some peace of mind and help my local economy.
Walmart sells IPod product, doesn’t it? They are just shooting themselves in the foot here.
My hometown has a Wal-Mart and a bustling downtown. In fact many of the small businesses would not have come to my town had it not been for Wal-Mart. My hometown has flourished because of Wal-Mart. You’re either a bad liar or you have no clue.
I defiantly agree that they are being completely ass backwards selling Linux based pcs and ipods and not supporting alternate browsers. Just for some S&G i fired up IE6 (Thanks to IE4Linux and wine!) and tried it out and i was able to access it fine. This is funny since as much as they might like to lock out some people, in the end they never really win over the consumers. If their offers don’t work with people who want the service they just go some where else. Lets hope that their competitors learn from their mistake and don’t launch a “Beta” service so readily.
Oh yes…….Opera 9.02 is good!!
And yes, WalMart sucks!
and you are really stupid for spewing such BS
They are not blocking Firefox, their code is simply to messy to be displayed by it.
among other things it’s a combination of two complete HTML documents into one, with over 500 syntax errors.
yes it is incompetence, but the DRM issue is a (bad) choice.
Quote: Because if it was to work on any UNIX variant, then they would have to provide it in source code form
Hmm, no, you are misinformed.
If Apple were to release itunes for a unix variant, like Linux or Sun, it would /not/ have to release the source code for the app.
There are many software vendors that sell executable-only applications for Unix operating systems. Just because you write an application for e.g. an open source OS like Linux does /not/ mean you have to give out the source code for your app.
For instance, AutoDesk’s MAYA, Mental Images “Mental Ray”, and Parasoft’s Insure++ are examples of commercial applications I myself use that have Linux/Windows/OSX versions of their commercial apps, and do not give out their source code. They cost a pretty penny too.
I didn’t know rednecks could even use the web…
Seriously… who cares? It’s Wal-effing-mart!!!
Man, as a web developer I can’t imagine offering clients an app that only worked in IE.
All the Wal-Mart rhetoric aside, it’s difficult to imagine that they’d put up with such a crappy app.
[Kelso voice] BURN! [/Kelso voice]
Walmart sucks on floppy yak peeners. And IE sucks, even though that’s what I’m posting with (staying at teh inlaw’s place FTL).
Keffa
It might be nothing other then Wal-mart can’t do any thing right.
I worked for them for 4 years and they could not do any thing but piss on there own this bad way of thinking but its the way they do things all things. this how they deal with the people that they get there products is just as bad they force the dealer to low the make of there product and if really good they buy the company then move to china because of the slave
labor that it allows its why wal-mart moved there after Sam Walton died.
he was a man that never wanted this but the his kids care only for the money nothing more but thats laughable for they live in Nuke prof bunker
how do enjoy all that money if you so sacred that you don’t go any were
I’ll sure that its about money they did not want to hire
some with the skill thats all for the work they wanted done thats all
The thing is it isn’t just on the downloads, its even on the benefits website for the employees…I can’t see my paystub ahead of time on the benefits site with firefox…
So true many believe in these Myths, get the facts: http://www.FirefoxMyths.com
Ever think they simply first go after the browser with 80% marketshare not 14%? It is called a smart financial decision. Website compatibility is a Myth with Firefox, get the facts http://www.FirefoxMyths.com
Which is smarter, going with 80% or 100%?
You know, Firefox can bypass the IE compatibility problem. Just get the IE tab extension, and open the website in in an Internet Explorer tab. Besides, we’re talking about compatibility for a freely distributed web browser. What’s the big deal?
The poor shop wal mart. The poor do not have luxury macs.
I build and repair computers as a volunteer thing, my only rule is that I don’t work with Microsoft products. You’d be suprised how many people are glad to switch when they not only know my work is free, but have seen my outdated frankenstien box running Slackware 11 with Beryl & XGL. It gets “Wow!”s even before people see the specs and realize that my system is mostly from 1999, then it gets “Can you put that on my computer?”s.
If not for walmart-us ‘poor people’ could not afford nearly as much-which high income people take for granted…..I am a member of the working poor- I dont know where I would shop and afford as much
you are so pathetic if u think walmart is forcing u to have a certin OS on your pc . OMG if u dont like it dont use it. why b***h about it. how pathetic r u that u have nothing better to do. its a great service. so u have to have certin requerments on ur system, big deal its not the end of the world.
>> The poor shop wal mart. The poor do not have luxury macs.
Oh, yeah. The first thing “the poor” do - before they go to work on the -bus- and before they make a quick stop at Starbucks for a $5 cup of joe - the first thing they do when they wake up is use their brand new “This works with vista really!(c)” desktop that they had to buy since their ‘old’ desktop wasn’t ‘powerful enough’ to run the piece of sh*t otherwise known as vista.
I mean - the poor <3 IE so much and are so stupid, right?
Before Microsoft did their best to screw people from using anything from Sun and any other thing smaller then sun that Microsoft didn’t like.
But they can’t do that anymore. Javascript has to work.
Microsoft is in a downward spiral - the dinosaur that will die off once the mighty asteroid known as open systems hits earth. And it is getting closer and closer.
Microsoft is the personification of greed and gigantic corporate stupidity and arrogance. Microsoft today - is the IBM of 80s.
Ironic.
>> Last week, Walmart launched their online video download service
Actually - if you want to get something utorrent tends to work just fine - and as a bonus - no money goes to wal-mart or microsoft.
win-win-win
Just to let you know, for the person who said they would use netflix instead of walmart for video download, walmart and netflix are partners in the movie area. walmart did not do well when they launched their dvd rental online, so they partnered with netflix, now they get a profit everytime netflix makes money.
hahahahahahaha
you are not even a drop in the bucket
I think it sucks that Walmart isn’t accepting “everyone” and seems to be very selective on the whole browser issue… But I think shallow thinkers are forgetting something. This is a freaking free country (generally speaking). Walmart is a company that can do WTF they want! If you don’t like the way Walmart does business, quit bi*ching and create your own company! … furthermore if you don’t like what Walmart does as a corporation.. then simply just don’t shop there.
But quit all the freaking baby-azz whining already! Sheeesh.