296691 - quickbooks.com - web application requires Internet Explorer

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Bill Brett]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050317 Firefox/1.0.2

I complained to QuickBooks about this problem.  They replyed:

====================

Currently we do not have plans to build a version of QuickBooks Online Edition
that will work with a non-windows operating system, nor with a browser other
than Internet Explorer. Here is a little information on why.

QB Online Edition is a web based Software Application, not just a Web Page that
displays static information.  While designing a Web Page to be available cross
platform is very routine, (though still presenting its challenges) creating a
Software Application requires tremendous cost and effort to develop and maintain
for any one single platform.  

For example, QuickAdd is a feature that allows you to begin typing a name and
QuickBooks Online Edition finds the one you mean. This requires a lot of
interaction with the browser and is not standardized across platforms, browser
versions, or browser brands. Writing a web application places far more
requirements on a browser than even a highly-interactive web site. We're not
100% satisfied with Internet Explorer on Windows, but it comes the closest.

So, given the challenges of application development, we made a very simple
business decision to target the platform with 95% of the market, so that we are
available to the widest range of Small Business Customers who need a web-based
accounting application.  At this time, the effort from both the engineering and
testing perspectives is too large an undertaking given the market share of other
platforms and browsers.

I hope you understand our decision even if it isn't what you might have hoped.
For a full list of system requirements, please go to:
http://oe.quickbooks.com/system-requirements.shtml

Thanks,

Sherrie Goff
QuickBooks Online Edition
http://www.QuickBooksOnlineEdition.com

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Goto URL.Attempt to get onto the site
2.Attempt to get onto the site
3.

Actual Results:  
Receive response saying QuickBooks is not compatable with the Firefox browser
and should move over to IE.

Comment 1

[Felix Miata]

Conforming summary to TFM item 10 at 
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tech-evangelism/site/procedures.html#file-new

Comment 2

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

Bill, they have made their decision and there is little we in Tech Evangelism
can do about it since they seem to have made their mind up. I would ask you to
consider asking them for a redund and terminating your account with them. That
is something that if repeated on a large enough scale would wake them up.

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

INCOMPLETE due to lack of activity since the end of 2009.

If someone is willing to investigate the issues raised in this bug to determine whether they still exist, *and* work with the site in question to fix any existing issues, please feel free to re-open and assign to yourself.

Sorry for the bugspam; filter on "NO MORE PRE-2010 TE BUGS" to remove.