SARS efiling unsupportive

A month back I sent an email to the South African Revenue Services electronic filing services regarding the requirement to use Windows and Internet Explorer to use their site. I promptly received a reply indicating that my mail had been received, and that it was to be discussed. A month has gone by, so I've sent a reminder email. And I figured I might as well attach my email here.

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:13:27 +0200
From: Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org>
To: info@sarseFiling.co.za
Subject: efiling.co.za support for non-IE browsers
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i
Organization: Independent Online
X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE i386
X-URL: http://mithrandr.moria.org/

To whom it may concern,

I was very unhappy to read on your web site that you only support
Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, and only on Microsoft's
Windows operating system.  (http://www.efiling.co.za/FAQ.asp)

Least importantly, Microsoft is artificially maintaining their monopoly
position by using lock-in tactics such as those that seem to prevent you
from supporting other standards-compliant browsers.  It is through their
actions that you will undoubtedly need to spend much time and money to
change your software to open standards to be able to support those you
need to provide services to.

The South African government has pledged to promote the use of open
source software, both in its own use and for various projects including
schools.  This will probably include the use of the Linux operating
system, and thus your site will not support a number of civil servants
and teachers.  It will be a major blow to this initiative if the SARS
eFiling system does not support open source software by the time only
personal income tax return filing is rolled out.

While Internet Explorer has the majority of users at the moment, the
other browsers are not without non-trivial amounts of users.  In fact,
users that use alternate browsers are more likely to be computer savvy,
and thus more comfortable with filing online than users who just happen
to stick to Internet Explorer since it is what was installed on their PC
for them.

Some educational environments still offer Netscape as the primary
browser on their Windows systems.  Some educational environments are
using Linux on the desktop, and browsers such as Mozilla and Konqueror.
Linux is becoming an option for corporate and personal desktop use,
often to avoid the high license fees and constant security problems that
the choice of Windows desktops and the Internet Explorer browser
require.  The local Linux community is pretty large, with good press,
improved desktop environments, and conferences helping its growth.

In my company alone, we're planning on migrating over 25 users to Linux
desktop, with the test subjects being so impressed with Linux, that
some are intending to test it for home use.  Last weekend, a number of
highly successful "installfests" occurred around the country, with over
a hundred new users directly, and an increased interest in the operating
system from those who just came to look, and those who encounter the new
users.

The number of Linux users will only grow as Linux is deployed within the
school system (programs like linuxlab.org.za) and elsewhere.
Translation programs like translate.org.za will also speed the adoption
of Mozilla, Linux, and Konqueror, since they provide versions in six of
the official languages (excluding english).

You may or may not support the Mac OS operating system, which has
Internet Explorer available for it, but Internet Explorer is not only no
longer being developed for the platform, Apple is now pushing its Safari
browser, which is based on technology from an open source browser.  Mac
OS and Linux are the two major alternatives to Windows on the desktop,
together claiming up to 9% of users (more or less, depending on the
study).

I hope this communication is helpful in your decision to support
alternative platforms.

Thanks,

Neil
--
Neil Blakey-Milner
nbm@mithrandr.moria.org