[OPLINTECH] Student access issues with Linux...

[Ron Woods]

Hi Richard

So far as I know, there Is no current Shockwave plug-in for Linux. As a
matter of fact, Adobe is phasing out Shockwave in favor of Flash and Adobe
Air. I do know you can run Microsoft Silverlight on Linux by installing the
Novell Moonlight Extension for Firefox(Moonlight includes full blown support
for Microsoft Silverlight which is becoming popular)

Also, sometimes sites on Linux will say they require Shockwave, but that
isn't always the case.

If your using Ubuntu you could take one system and run the following
commands from the terminal

Sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

You can also search synaptic for gstreamer-good and gstreamer-ugly which
will install a full set of codecs and plugins that will support tons of
propriety playback formats that just may solve your problem. Also if you can
install mplayer and the Mozilla-mplayer plugins as mplayer supports a good
many formats on its own. 

If the above fails, then the only option is to run Firefox via Wine or a
copy of Windows in virtual box...

I have seen sites with Linux and Firefox ask for shockwave, but sometimes
its not the case...just figure its worth a shot

Worst case scenario, the above will allow you to be able to play every
proprietary multimedia format known on your Linux box....:)

Good luck

Sincerely

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at oplin.org] On
Behalf Of shivelri at oplin.org
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:42 AM
To: oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: [OPLINTECH] Student access issues with Linux...

Hello everyone,

This is a question for all of you who have switched patron systems over to
Linux...

I have switched all of our patron access computers over to Kubuntu 8.10
(instead of 9.x because we use AdminKioskTool). But we are having an issue
with to college sites when it comes to tests; Sinclair and Edison. 
Firefox is asking for missing plug-ins but can not identify them. I checked
both colleges websites for what the requirements to access their online
courses were, two things pop out at me; First, they claim to require
Shockwave; Secondly, they state the need of a Mac or Windows environment.
Shockwave is unavailable for Linux (Without running Firefox in WINE with
Shockwave, causes big issues). The Mac/Win environment, to me, indicates the
need, possibly for activeX which also is not supported for Linux. So having
said this, am I correct in this assumtion as to why these sites do not work?
Has anyone else had this issue? and if so what did you do about it?

Currently I am sticking with the statement of our Internet policy which
states no guarantee of anything beyond Internet access.

Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

--
Richard Shively
IT/Webmaster
Greenville Public Library
520 Sycamore, Greenville Oh. 45331
937-548-3915