[HSC-Unix] A UTHSC-specific problem for a standard Linux

[Borries Demeler]

> Right now, the only browser that will correctly function with the 
> PeopleSoft web interface is Internet Explorer.  Every time I log onto that 
> thing, I see the note about the navigation problem with all other browsers, 
> and that it is "being worked on" (or something to that effect).  This has 
> been the situation for over a year, and still it has not been fixed.  I 
> gather that, until the next version of PeopleSoft is released - which will 
> include a true web client - this problem is not going away.  With the 
> current uncertainty over the future of PeopleSoft vis a vis the attempted 
> takeover by Oracle, it is very unclear when a new version will be 
> released.  This means that PI's will have to be able to run IE to keep 
> their labs and projects going.

Good point! I have to access PeopleSoft as well, and the only way I can
make it work is through VMWare running IE. Regardless of wether we are
adopting a Linux solution or not, I think that whoever is programming
UTHSCSA webpages should never use any solutions that will exclude certain
operating systems or popular browsers. There are plenty tools available
(open source, I might add, such as PERL, Python, PHP or CGI programming
based on C or C++) that allow you to generate the same functionality
in a platform independent way. Last year in his address to the Faculty
Senate, Jerry York promised that this problem would be taken care of,
but I am still waiting.

A similar problem exists when one tries to log into insight.uthscsa.edu or
grants management pages for uploading grants (recent SALSI as an example).

To answer your question: VMWare does provide a workaround for Linux users
right now, but it should not be required. As Sherry already pointed out,
there is little benefit of running a Linux OS when people end up installing
Windows again anyway in a virtual machine, which would make them vulnerable
again.

-Borries