Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] rant about themes

[Andrew M Cohill]

> Font tags, center tags, all this icky table attribs are HTML3. Shouldn't
> the focus now be on HTML4 and CSS? Do not cite Netscape4. Only weirdos use
> that damned browser. UPDATE. ;)

I ran an experiment trying to support about 100 people last fall with 
phpGW, and it was a disaster.  Let me tell you why.

These were "normal" folks--that is, they don't work in the IT 
industry; they have lives and jobs, and typically would not view 
downloading and trying out new browsers "fun."

Most of these folks were using older browsers that manifested the 
"Cannot verify session" problem, although Netscape 6.2 has that as 
well, even though Netscape 4.75 (Mac versions) does not.

NO ONE was willing to update or change their browser.  Not one single 
person.  They blamed the software, and did not regard the advice to 
change/update their browser as a) useful, or b) something they had 
any intention of doing.

These folks were not "wierdos."  They represented a reasonable cross 
section of the other 95% of the people in the country (about 5% of 
the country works in the IT industry).

Unfortunately,  despite requests on this list, I was unable to get a 
definitive answer on how to configure phpGW to avoid the session 
error.  Most suggestions assumed I had complete control of the 
server--I didn't and still don't--I'm using a hosting service, and 
they are not willing to make a lot of special changes for one 
customer and one piece of software.

If phpGW is going to break out of the limited market of tech-savvy 
users and groups, it has to have better set up and configuration 
instructions, especially to run it on  commercial hosting services. 
And it has to support a wider range of new AND old browsers (at least 
back to 4.x on both Mac and Windows).

Thanks,
Andrew
--
---------------------------------------------------
Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.   Director, Blacksburg Electronic Village
Communications Network Services--part of  Virginia Tech Information Systems
http://www.bev.net/cohill/                       address@hidden
540-231-7855                    Adj. Prof. of Architecture, Virginia Tech