I'm Looking Into Buying An Acer Chromebook

AustinLee3
AustinLee3 Member Posts: 1 New User
in 2014 Archives

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I'm looking into buying one of these Acer Chromebooks. I'm mostly going to be using it for school and I was wondering does the web browser work with pretty much any website? I'm wondering because I'm going to be using it for a math class that will be online.

Answers

  • ogryzek
    ogryzek Member Posts: 2 New User

    I used my various netbooks (Linux based) and Android devices on two major online class systems (Blackboard and Desire2Learn).  Often the new session will start with a screen that checks your system/browser for compatibility (verified browser running, cookies, Java, Flash).

     

    Typically IE will be supported.  Support for FF and chrome may vary (and often depends on version deployed by your school).  I have seen examples where a school back-end upgrade to the latest version of BB broke otherwise working site.

     

    Also a lack of support on the browser developer side may come to play.  A typical example here would be site requirement for Flash which is (kinda) missing on the more recent Android releases (in this case you can side-load older Flash .apk)

     

    Even browsers that are shown as not-compatible may still work -- you just have to test them.  In my experience it is not hard to add missing extensions / add-ons / plug-ins / codecs and make things work.

  • rasqual
    rasqual Member Posts: 3 New User

    Load an agent switcher extension. It can't help with sites that actually require IE, but it can help with sites that validate to standards well but are, for some dumb reason, set up to look for IE only. 

     

    But that's a rare, exceptional situation. It's more likely (alas) that a professor/teacher who's not very savvy might assign involvement in some retrograde site whose developers -- long since retired leaving no one to carry on -- were working in a Microsofty Trident world. 

     

    Basically, don't let your concern hold you back. If you run into a problem, make a bemused face while asking your professor why he doesn't just assigne cuneiform sources as well as ancient web sites.   ;-)

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