Notices

Or your money in different bank, but that's not the point.

OP: please excuse the unruly kids here.. all they know is linux and not much else, so they have a skewed world view and tend not to know the real important things in life

maybe you can post the bank's website so we can recommend a solution for you? Maybe it's as simple as changing the browser's user-agent (nake your browser say it's IE, with no other changes).

If he's okay with really bad performance, he could try installing an old version of windows in either dosbox or bochs. That would give him ie. I assume the bank wants something like ie6?
That said, try the user agent string...it's handy for the extremely rare site that decides to be mean to firefox.

i am somewhat experienced and work it in an industry where every desktop must have ie. some even need to be ie 6 or even 5 in some cases. i have started to run a xenserver with some virtual machines folks can log onto when they need this old stuff, but many times it is easier to just have it installed locally.

the situation is getting better of course, but i dont foresee it going away anytime soon, so please treat op with a little deference. it is definitely a real world situation and more often than not the situations where ie is still required are of more import than random internet shenanigans. the stuff where activex is still required or some other archane browser plugin often deal with real life issues like birth, death, taxes, banking, govt registrations, etc.

believe me, it pains me to do these things as i am very, uhmm, enthusiastic about the alternative os out there and alternative programming and project paradigms now so common, but it is reality.

in reply to the question, i would not pin to much hope on being able to get some of these things working on n900, but it is the best mobile device to at least try with anyway

if i had to choose between switching my bank (assuming i am comfy with it and they handle my finances accordingly) and switching to a browser that they support. is it really even a question?

There is a 'proper' way to fix this. Instead of changing banks, give them a reason for thinking that you should change banks.

Let them know so that they can tell their IT guy that he shouldn't be sitting on his arse and using crap technology (let's face it, that's what IE specific code is) and use standards.

Let them know that when they use normal web standards, they will be able to instantly support mobile banking, and a more universal online experience, and probably get rid of possible security problems as well.

Security is the big kicker.

The sad thing is, one of the companies that I do my credit card through will NOT display in Linux / Firefox (I refuse to log into windows to do any online banking.)

The way around it.... DISABLE FLASH! I have Flashblock installed, and it then just makes certain sections of the page have the play button. If I don't have flashblock enabled, I get the normal page as it's loading, but if it gets to finish, it ends up blank. I can only think that somewhere on the page it tries to do some weird overlay that firefox in Linux won't allow (I haven't tested the Windows version of Firefox for the above reason.)

Sorry for such a long rant, but recently a friend of mine said that he NEEDED IE on his computer because some page he needed for his part time job was written using ActiveX. WTF, seriously people, in this day and age people are still using this security hole? Especially for information like SSN and birthdates and credit scores, etc.

The more people you can get to complain that a website is using old crappy non-standard web technology the better.

The company that has that funky page I was talking about did allow me to contact their IT. They said they'd work on it. At one point it looked like they had fixed it... but then it reverted. I'd keep trying, though Flashblock is a nice work around.

Microsoft should be punished for all the legacy IE specific crap that is out there, as should all the lazy web developers who refuse to change it.

slaapliedje

P.S. Oh, and for the original topic. No, IE6 will not run on the N900, unless you can magically get WIndows 9x to run (I can't recall, it may require at least Windows 98. I don't think you can run it in NT4, or if NT4 would even run on the N900 through bochs, dosbox, whatever.)

they're probably not old enough to have to deal with that sort of things..

@slaaplidje:
they probably don't pick and choose the standards and components used in their online solution themselvess. It depends on the implementor/support providers too. (which for various reasons i agree with. In business people matters more than technology.)

The best solution I can see to this problem is Remote Desktop. It adds extra steps to the process but at least you will be able to do online banking with the N900.

I just managed to do it thru Remote Desktop, as suggested here. Thamk you for your help, but let's try to find a faster way. And yes, real life sometimes sucks, but sometimes you can't chande the bank that lands you money, nor the bank that your company works with, even worse if you are encharged of the finances of the company, things we learn thru life.

Glad to hear you have a workaround.
I too am forced to use Remote Desktop for some servers that need active-x. But they are quarantined as is the RD machine I log in through. RD will probably be your only option, at least performance wise.
I am fortunate as I can use both my bank and credit cards main web site with my N900 even though they use flash content.
FWIW, About 2 weeks ago I noticed a link on my banks web site about evaluating their service so I filed out the questionnaire. I pointed out that I was happy that they were not using the latest and greatest tech for the bling and not using java applets nor active-x. They do use some java scripting, but it works. Anyway I answered their questions stressing security over shiny. I must have come across as someone who actually answers questionnaires as I received a request last week to evaluate the mobile banking site. Answered the phone questions, etc. but said I didn't use it. One question really stood out though.
"Should the mobile site be non-interactive i.e. read only?"(somewhat paraphrased) Interesting.
Long story yet longer. Check your financial institutes sites for feed back opportunities, or visit them. Most reputable business do care but tend to move slowly.
Take care.