"Upgrade"
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Just like they asked you to upgrade to ie in the 90s a d early 00s.
I have this exact problem when I have to manage Apple devices for work. Nothing that user agent switcher can't fix.
Pearson is a testing company. They use all sorts of sketchy shit under the guise of anti-cheating. Much of that requires specific plug-ins and stuff that only work in Windows.
Even if you could get it working, but they'll likely just say you were cheating, and take the $300+ you paid to take that required test.
Pearson using all sorts of extremely invasive and questionable kernel-level access plugins to make sure people don't open notes to cheat on their test on their computer. People just open their notes on another device. Or, you know, paper.
Or, you know, paper.
- That's what desk/workspace scanning in the most extreme cases is meant to detect. This is why I really don't like online schooling, because in the absolute worst case, your school will literally scan your place.
You know what would be a really good way to show if your students learned your course material? Let them show it with a practical test of some kind...
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The only solution for that is to proctor exams in person on their equipment. Miss me with all that nonsense. Makes me glad I'm done with schoolin' for now...
Oh Pearson definitely does thst as well. But not everyone lives near or has reliable transit to a testing facility. Online testing is essentially a requirement for those people.
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Linux will never become relevant on the desktop until its has better spyware support.
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Some websites do this.
Change the user agent to windows and it works.
Fuxk you piece of shit!
Amazon does this too. After you bought a movie you can't watch it in full hd on Linux. User agent doesn't help.
However if you tell their api that you are an smart tv running Linux it works....
Same goes if you're running Firefox.
I once had Hotmail take forever to get past the loading screen, then actually navigating my mail was hellishly slow. Switched my user agent to Edge and "magically" it loaded instantly and everything was snappy...
Had a few other sites do similar slowdowns but that and Youtube were the most unashamedly blatant.
The amazon might be due to drm, not OS racism, not that that's a valid excuse
Drm was not the issue they just refused to run high quality on Linux.
Linux Browsers Support drm too.
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It's kinda wild that an IT Certification company can't handle Linux, but I'm sadly not surprised.
Pearson is indirectly asking you to pirate their courses.
Pearson, HMH, and all the major for-profit educational resource providers (and much of the not-for-profits, too) are literally actually evil.
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Maybe they should upgrade to support other OSes?
pirate the book, they clearly don't deserve your money
The problem is most courses require a code that costs about ten dollars less than the book. Pearson did this to destroy the used book market.
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No ty. :)
Seems to be that learning sites in general are assholes. I once attended a language course, and while their "solution" was web based, it was focused on IE. I had serious issues attending the course under Firefox.
I logged a lot of errors on their site, but their tech support could only manage accounts, the web site had been built by an external company ages ago, and they had no fingers into that.
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Ughgggh. Am I gonna need to get a device I can put propriety garbage on for school?
I should be fine right? A software dev program couldn't possible force you to use windows right?
I used a Windows VM when I was in college. Even if you are pursuing a computer science degree, yes, some professors assume/expect that everyone will be using Windows. Using a VM also has the added benefit of you being easily able to get rid of all the programs they made you install as well once the semester is over.
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They can force you to use Windows.
What you can do is ask if using a virtual machine is fine. or don't ask at all and have a virtual machine image of windows ready.
As someone who's worked for several years in higher ed IT and used Linux during my studies, this'll only get you most of the way there. Unfortunately some proctoring software (Respondus Lockdown Browser comes to mind) can be incredibly invasive, and to my knowledge will refuses to run in a VM.
Instructors also have a tendency of not disclosing during registration whether or not they use these proctoring softwares.
I'm lucky enough that by the time I was all-in on Linux, I wasn't taking courses that used that exam model, but it's why I make sure that the helpdesk at my current institution offers loaner devices to students who either have computers incapable of running the proctoring software, or who simply don't want that kind of software on their own machine. It's a pain in the ass to work with, but apparently it's enshrined in our faculty's union contract.
Kernel-level anti-cheat, it's not just for gamers.
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Yeah Iβm not going to buy ebooks that expire so quickly.
Books... doing what? Expire?
Yeah wtf. That's kinda books whole thing. They just sorts exist until they naturally end up in a charity shop.
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DRM - the bane of good user experience.
GOG nailed it - no DRM, low prices, convenience.
If most book publishers released their texts with new features (e.g. linking references, or adding additional notes to proofs/solutions) they'd get their sales. Instead they just slap DRM on and...
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"upgrade" no you mean emulate/switch.
I call it the "shame box."
Let me guess, it's a webpage?
One way to get around that is changing the user agent. I've never changed the user agent and had a loss of functionality, it always seems like they have a stupid user agent check just to make sure you're using windows/chrome.
"Upgrade?"
Also I remember these Pearson pricks downgraded everyone's BTEC results for an assignment on "the future of the media industry" as they got some boomer to mark it who didn't do any research himself
the "key features" being the ones with drm
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