I really hope they do but I’m keeping my expectations realistic.
An open alternative to Apple/Google/Samsung pay seems impossible…
The actual % numbers are probably not that important. Software developers and hardware manufacturers are looking for a critical mass of users of their product. So if 20% of the world switch from Windows to Linux but they are the 20% that only use a web browser then why would the compatibility landscape change? Adobe are not going to do the hard work to support Linux just because schools and libraries switch to Linux. Even if every government mandates using Linux for government offices would Cricut suddenly support Linux?
I think this is the only feature that matters. For a user switching away from Windows I would love to hear about the user experience between buying a system76 (or another Linux system seller) vs a Mac laptop. Complaining that Linux doesn’t work with your hardware is like complaining that the hackintosh that you built doesn’t work with your hardware.
Was just trying to watch the original Star Wars from when I was young and found out that it is simply not available for sale. My money is no good! Then I found this Project 4K77.
+1 servarr It took me a while to navigate the (high) sea of information but eventually I got a setup I like. I started, like you say, just running qBit but found the search results limited and tedious to review manually. Get started with Prowlarr if nothing else. No need to jump in the deep end with everything all at once but once you see how it works you can add other components later.
I selfhost my own email and you are absolutely correct it is musch easier to receive than to send. I use a 3rd party to send all my outgoing mail on my behalf.
Before you post a snappy “just do X” or “try this software” try it yourself consent-letter-2123.pdf my complaint is not trivial.
https://travel.gc.ca/docs/child/consent-letter-2123.pdf Open the form and try it yourself. What you are saying doesn’t work for this form. You need the scripts embedded in the form to create the final consent letter.
That just shows how dishonest Adobe is being. For example if a form was named “gov-form.xfa” instead of “gov-form.pdf” then my whole expectation would be different as it is obviously not a PDF and so I shouldn’t treat it as such.
Where you able to convert the form into an open format and also preserve all the original functionality? If this is true then there is absolutely no excuse for these forms not being offered in alternative formats. There are some tools that will let you ‘flatten’ an XFA form to a static PDF but this destroys all the dynamic parts of the original.
Feels very hostile right? I assume that all these smart XFA forms still have an online legacy dumb equivalent that is far less easy to use (both for the user and the government)
Adobe does sell licences for other companies to use the XFA format but even the software you linked has a free reader that pushes you to the paid full version. Also not FOSS.
I’m glad that not everyone is oblivious to my suffering! Thanks for the validation!
Also to your point about not having an issue with Firefox, I read that Firefox recently implemented an XFA reader in their browser but the issue is that most of the javascript is not supported so the functionality of the form is not guaranteed to work.
https://travel.gc.ca/docs/child/consent-letter-2123.pdf I was exactly in your position before I had to use this document! I was confident that a government form would not be this complicated but a big part of my frustration was that I was trying to solve the issue as if it was a PDF problem but PDF is an open standard and there are plenty of excellent FOSS tools and programs that can do anything you can imagine with a PDF. This form is an imposter!
Very disappointed that the Canadian government uses them so much. I’m open to changing my mind if there is an explanation as to why this format is irreplaceable. Like maybe it offers some security feature or the like?
Maybe you would be interested to try linuxfromscratch?
This might not be the most exciting reason but its the only one anybody should need! It a shame that we think we need to justify being left in peace.
Your average user is comparing the time to setup a new game vs a punch in the face, no contest punch in the face all day! Now if you are getting punched in the face for more than 5 hours then maybe they will start considering an alternative…