Bank of America Rep Responds To No Linux Support

This isn't exactly fresh news but I think some of you might find this interesting.

Before we get into it, a couple of things to keep in mind:

1.  The Bank of America is a Silver member of The Linux Foundation.

2.  Tim Golden -- Senior vice president at Bank of America sits on the
     Linux Foundation Board of Directors.

You might want to take a look at what Mr. Golden has to say in the above link about Linux on the Desktop and in the racks before you go any further.

With that being said...

A couple of months back, Skip Guenter, our Director of System Engineering noticed some disturbing language in an email he received from his bank.

That would be Bank of America.

It dealt with his online banking and it concerned the "Electronic Disclosure Statement" online agreement to which he was being asked to agree.



In a nutshell, it is asking BOA online banking users to agree that they are using specific hardware and software to do said banking.  It isn't giving an option to opt-out...it is asking you to say you are using specific hardware and software...even if you are not.  

As you can see in the graphic above, Linux users are not included.

Go figure...

Skip wasn't comfortable in "agreeing" to this so he began the laborious task of trying to find the person who could change it.

Now, with legal issues in mind here, I am going to walk a fine line in reporting the back-and-forth between the BOA representative and Skip Guenter.  Some of the emails had confidentiality statements attached to them and some did not.

To protect ourselves, I will only post those communications that did not have such agreements.  They tell the story well enough.

Look, we all know that we use a less-common OS.  We can argue the numbers all day but whether we have 1 percent usage or 7 percent usage, we can all agree that some would consider the Linux Operating System "obscure".

Or not...

Skip finally contacted someone who deals with browser support strategy and compatibility.  I will post the text of the most important dialog below:

Guenter:  First off I want to thank you for taking the time to reply.  It's appreciated.

I understand the desktop user base issue (especially here in the US, maybe 1%) and I don't really need or expect you to "support" Linux in any direct manor since you are supporting the Firefox browser.

I am not having any problems using Firefox on Ubuntu to do my on-line banking nor have I over the years I've been doing biz with Bank of America.

My issue is purely that the electronic disclosure statement that I'm being required to sign in order to access my account (Hardware & Software Requirements, which, btw, seems to be completely software) says that I *AM* using the software listed.  Since I am not using this I don't feel right in signing it.  Is there any way some wording could be changed to say that I understand using anything else is "unsupported" instead of asking me to sign something saying that I 'am' using Windows or OS/X  (eg. opt out with... "Yes, I'm a demented geek and understand that BAC will not support issues arising from my use of the Linux OS")?

As it is now I can't even pay my upcoming payment due because I can't get past checking "I agree" to this.  I have talked to customer service and requested to be changed back to paper billing but certainly this can't be the direction you want to drive customers.
I also have an account with Chase.  They use a link to all the legalize at the bottom of each page.   The one that covers roughly the same topic is item #5 in the below.

(note we received the following message when clicking the above-noted url:  Due to the presence of characters known to be used in Cross Site Scripting attacks, access is forbidden. This web site does not allow Urls which might include embedded HTML tags. )




The only Chase Bank requirements are below:
   
Hardware and Software Requirements. In order to access, view, and retain electronic Communications that we make available to you, you must have:

• an up to date Internet browser that we support;
• sufficient electronic storage capacity on your computer's hard drive or other data storage unit;
• an e-mail account with an Internet service provider and e-mail software in order to participate in our electronic Communications programs;
• a personal computer (for PC's: Pentium 120 Hhz or higher; for Macintosh, Power Mac 9500, Power PC 604 processor 120-MHz Base or higher), operating system and telecommunications connections to the Internet capable of receiving, accessing, displaying, and either printing or storing Communications received from us in electronic form via a plain text-formatted e-mail or by access to our web site using one of the browsers specified above.
• software that enables you to view files in the Portable Document Format ("PDF").

In other words, I am not expecting you to support Firefox/Linux, just don't make me 'sign' saying I'm using Win/OS/x when I'm not, to continue using your on-line banking service.

Thank you very much for your time,

Skip


S. R. 'Skip' Guenter

The response from the BOA rep follows:

BOA Rep:  Mr. Guenter, I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Our legal team reviewed the language of the disclosure and your concerns and here is what they had to say:


We are required by the Electronic Signatures and Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign) to disclose the hardware and software requirements a customer needs to access any legally required disclosures, such as our transfer and bill pay disclosures contained in the OLB Service Agreement.  The hardware and software requirements disclosed should be based on what the Bank actually tests against to make sure the information is accessible.


If we water down the language by making the hardware and software disclosures more generic or saying that the hardware and software is merely suggested/recommended, we risk a couple of things:

1.  You would be creating an obligation to test every single combination of browser, operating system, and PDF reader in use out there to make sure the information is accessible; and 2.  If you don't test every combination and a customer using an obscure combination can't access legally required disclosures, they could argue that the Bank didn't actually deliver these disclosures in compliance with law.


So, in the end, while we appreciate your concerns, we need to keep the language as stated in order to keep ourselves compliant with the E-Sign act. Basically, how we interpret the language is to say that in order for us to fully support any issues and the security of our customers, we require them to use only certain browser operating system combinations. However, if you CHOOSE to use a different browser or OS, you will not receive that full support and protection. Accepting the terms and conditions merely signifies that you understand and accept this risk. Does that clear things up for you?

To which Skip replied:

Guenter:  I do appreciate the fact that you took the time to respond.  I'm going to have to think about what I do now.

Funny thing -  Last night I was watching a show on Hulu.com and the primary sponsor was your company.  They had a good advert basically showing folks how they could do their banking from their mobile devices, mentioning by name the Android.  I thought, no kidding, I wonder if the legal guys know what "obscure" operating system runs on that!  I'm sure you do and I needn't elaborate my point here.  I wonder what OLB Service agreement the users of those devices are presented with.

Again, Thank you,

S. R. 'Skip' Guenter

So that brings up a number of questions.  Doesn't BOA offer an Android app for  phones and tablets?  This link states that they do.  Is there a different requirement for phones vs. computers? 

And I won't insult your intelligence by asking you what the Android platform is based on...Guenter alludes to that in his response.

And what part, if any will Canonical play in this?  They are the big dogs in the pit so to speak.  If anyone in the Linux or Open Source community has reason to interact with this effort then it would be them.  With their upcoming and somewhat abrupt switch to Unity vs Gnome...one would think.

So once again, we are seeing "Linux Foundation members" doing the same thing that Netflix did recently.  They lay the whole thing on "legal" issues....In the case of Netflix, intertwined with DRM and the DMCA.

It's been fairly evident that The Linux Foundation isn't really concerned with Desktop use...it wants membership from the Enterprise.  Those who use Linux more on the server side.  That's where the money is, at least according to a conversation Tom King and I had with Jim Zemlin at the 2008 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit.

They want to play in the pool but they don't want to do any of the maintenance.  At least from a Desktop point of view.  Of course, as a Linux Desktop advocate, I would see such things through that filter.  That's not saying it's an accurate observation.

Maybe from a business standpoint, Bank of America is doing what they are legally responsible for...making stockholders happy?  Holding down costs?

I'm not going to make any further judgments...above are the facts.

We can sort it out in the comments.

All-Righty Then

Santa's Sleigh is on it's Way

Holy cow, are we gonna be busy.

As noted in a recent blog and reported in the Austin American Statesman blog, St. Jude Medical generously donated 75 laptop computers to The HeliOS Project.  This was impeccable timing as we were completely out of computers for The HeliOS Project. With the Holiday season approaching, we were faced with turning down kids that needed us.

Well, between the brutal weather and an unfortunate administrative error, the shipment of those laptops was delayed by several days.  Instead of receiving them yesterday, we are scheduled to take delivery of them on the 20th.

That gives us 5 days to deliver over two dozen computers.

If you want to track the shipment along with us you can do so at www.fedex.com using tracking number 2143499374.

And yes, I do personally work on Christmas Day.  It's no big deal.  I've done it every year since I've started doing this.  I am so blessed to be able to do what I do, that working a few hours on Christmas Day playing Santa is looked forward to.

Problem is...

We are going to have to drive hundreds of miles to get this done and unfortunately we have to have fuel in the vehicle to do so.

We're short on the funds to do it.

We occasionally come to you with requests like this and I am more and more unwilling to do so but in this case, we're against a time clock and it will be a challenge to get this done.  We're only asking for 10 dollar donations as each delivery shouldn't take more than that to complete.

There are several ways to help.  You can go to our SPI donation site to donate.  We also have a paypal solution that will get us the funds quicker and we won't have to wait for them to be sent to us.  If this is your preferred method, please email me at helios@fixedbylinux.com and I can give you the instructions there.

Or...you can visit our Amazon store and pick from the items we have available for sale there.

I know this is an especially tight Holiday season and for those able to help us out, I want to thank you in advance for helping us do what we do.

All-Righty Then...

AT&T Blocks Linux Configuration

Editor note:  In the first 24 hours this blog has been up, we have had 8 clients inform us that they are canceling their AT&T installs scheduled in the next 2 weeks.  Maybe not a big deal but it's a start. - helios

The Old Saying goes...

Pick your battles.

That's not so much saying we should become inattentive to other issues, but it does mean to focus on those things that you can affect.

...And don't become like Chicken Little and make every little thing a crisis.



Pick your battles?

OK, we will.

How's this?

In the past 45 days, I've done a ton of installs.  Of that bunch, 17 of our clients in that 45 days had chosen AT&T DSL for their provider.

For good reason I think...

They offer a two year contract at 14.95 a month for Internet service.

Pretty good deal, huh?

Not if you are a Linux User.

In the past six months we have done a lot of installs with those who had AT&T come in before we installed the computer.  Sure it was a hassle.  We had to go in and manually configure the modem firmware for PPPOE, manually set up network manager and then, if the stars and planets aligned correctly, we could reset the modem and bingo...

We were connected.

Nowdays, not so much.

Starting about two months ago, we noticed that when we accessed the modem page at 192.168.something.or_another, as soon as we focused the cursor in the first field, we got a popup that asked us to install software to guide us through the configuration.

Of course, the requirements were a Windows Operating System and a Microsoft Explorer browser.  Big surprise...an ActiveX control.

This has tested true with three different modems that AT&T provides or recommends.  Two Speedstreams and the standard white 2wire modem.

Again, this seems to be a new twist...we've never had this problem before.

Bypassing the popup was impossible...at least at my level of knowledge.  It stood as a sentry against the configuration page.  No matter what we did, we ended up with the instructions to install the software.

Software that required Microsoft Windows or a Mac system.

From the Comments...

"...the unofficial grumblings I got from the AT&T phone reps are that only pirates use Linux. If that's the case, then this is very likely a high up, corporate wide decision and you are going to need to go high up the food chain to reach anyone with any ability to adjust policy."

As a matter of course, I have established the habit of carrying around a small laptop with Windows XP installed in order to do this.  Doing so is absolutely ridiculous and should be unnecessary,

Of course, unless you go into network manager under your Linux install and do the DSL configuration, you won't connect.  You will show connected but you really are not.

That's just fyi.

But to the point.

Linux has evolved as a viable presence on the desktop.  I can point to 1186 cases on point.  And that's just the Linux installs we've done.  That doesn't touch small and medium business Linux Desktop users we've encountered through HeliOS Solutions service calls.

There are way more than you might think.

The last install I did where the client had AT&T DSL pre-ordered prior to my arrival was to me, the last straw.  I gained the subscription owners name, email address and passwords in order to talk to tech support on the phone.  I made no mistake in telling them that I was a Linux User from the beginning.

That seemed to shorten the call considerably.

"I'm sorry sir, we don't support Linux.  You have to use Microsoft Windows or a Mac before we can connect you"

Really?

We went around for a bit until I asked to escalate the call to a tier two support specialist.  Tier one refused and again stated the need for Windows or a Mac system before connection could be established.  A tier two rep wouldn't be able to do anything more for me.

OK, fair enough.

From the comments...

"We have AT&T U-verse here. When first installed, it ran great. That lasted about 3 months. For some reason, our download speed dropped considerably. I called support to see what could be done. The first thing out of the techs mouth was, "Open the Windows Control Panel." I told them that I'm running Linux and I know for a fact that the issue isn't with my laptop. They sent me to Tier 2 support and the tech told me the reason the service has slowed down is because I'm running Linux. He said that Linux doesn't run well on a network. I wish I had recorded that statement because to this day, it makes me laugh and infuriates me all at the same time. Clueless people."

I have begun to ferret out those Management-types in our local area who can discuss this with us.  So far, I've been given the run around but that was on the phone.

Tomorrow I will start making public appearances at the AT&T headquarters and I will find out what we can do.

And yes, I've tried to skirt around this and talk to some of their service techs off the record and see how we can fix this.

So far, no calls or emails have been returned.

From the comments...

"Just the thought of this irks me. My mother is an AT&T retiree!"

We've done the only thing we can do at this point.  We've warned our potential clients of AT&T's reluctance to service them by making an announcement on our website.  The announcement is on the top right of the page under "Bits and Bytes."

The best we can do right now is to warn people away from AT&T....

And maybe find the right people to talk to.  We might not be able to get anything done but we can document their reluctance to recognize Linux as a legitimate operating system.

From the Comments...

"...Seems the "quality control" at AT&T could not care less. I received their confirmation email saying a customer support representative would contact me about my compliant.

That was about 3 weeks ago. We are trying to get out of our contract now and switch to Cricket. Not as cheap but I'm sure it's a whole lot better."

So out of the projected 400 installs we will do next year, approximately 1/3 of them will choose AT&T for their provider based on their cheap level of service entry.  These are financially disadvantaged families

That inexpensive point of service doesn't mean much when the person has to go out and purchase a Windows license.

Of course, there is a part of me that knows versions of XP SP3 are, ahem...

available.

Many of the folks we give computers to know this as well.  Will they be tempted to pirate software in order to connect to the net?  Are we to consider such an option?

This is where I am supposed to guffaw and tell you we wouldn't think of such a thing.

Supposedly...

One option is to install an "eternally-validated" and pirated copy of XP SP3 via VirtualBox on each computer, then delete the image when we have established the Windows-dependent connection.

But that increases the time of each machine install by at least 30-40 minutes.

And it entails pirating software...that's not the example we wish to set with our young people.

From the Comments...

"I wanted to switch from Comcast to AT&T because Comcast has a bit too many routing problems. This story certainly quenched the idea. I guess AT&T will not see my business anytime soon."

So whether this week's efforts find us someone in management/tech to help us solve this or they tell us to PUAR...that remains to be seen.

At this point, I would be happy with either one.

We will happily publish the names and positions of those who do either.

All-Righty Then

St. Nick in the Nick of Time

We recently announced that we were suspending operations for a month.  First off, my thanks to those who inquired as to my health.  Fully realizing that my health in the past has been an issue, I can understand why some might think it was the issue at hand.

If weight gain and retention were to be chosen as an indicator for one's health, by all indications, I am at my peak...

The reason we closed down is simple.  We were out of computers to give away.  We had several on hand but they were scheduled for installs already.  Once we dispatched those, our cupboards were bare.


As if on cue...I got a call from Michael Zagger.

Michael is the Division Vice President of Cardiovascular Sales at St. Jude Medical here in Austin.  Michael had personally donated some laptops and other computer components a few months back.  He also stated that he was going to talk to his Group President about doing a mass donation of laptops in the near future.

Now I know how this goes at times.  When one person might see the need, those above him might not see it as a priority.  Other times their IT department might have policy in place that dictates the decommissioned machines be auctioned or go to specified non profits.

It wouldn't be the first time we were passed over for corporate donations.  Hey, it happens....just move along and do the best you can.

Mike Zagger was persistent.  According to Michael T. Rousseau, Group President, St. Jude Medical... 

Mike Zagger "wouldn't take no for an answer."

On Wednesday, December 8th, we were called to the Austin headquarters of St. Judes.  


It was there that we were presented with 75 laptops.  


That's seven in the tens column, five in the ones column.


75 laptops.

We arranged for the first recipient of these laptops to be present.  Kernetta Owens and her dad, Kirk were able to make the trip to south west Austin for the ceremony.  Kernetta is an A and B student at Connelly High School in Pflugerville Texas where she is an Advanced Placement student and is active in band.  Kirk is a disabled vet and isn't able to give Kernetta the computer she needed for school.
Left to right, Ken from HeliOS, Mike Zagger, Kernetta Owens and Michael T. Rousseau, Group President, St. Jude Medical

These laptops aren't exactly museum pieces.  We received:

45 Vaio VGN-TX770P laptops

30 Dell D610 Laptops. 

Both of these laptop models have proven to be work horses and they should serve our kids well for years to come.

I want to personally thank St. Judes Medical for their generosity and for seeing the importance of small projects such as ours.  We were in a position we had not found ourselves for years.  We were out of computers and with Christmas coming, we had a large number of people requesting computers that would not get one.

 From left to right, Skip Guenter HeliOS Project Director of Systems Engineering, Michael Zagger, Division VP, Cardiovascular Sales, Diane Franklin Records-keeper extraordinaire for HeliOS, Ken Starks. Kernetta Owens, Kirk Owens, Mark Thornburg, HeliOS system-building volunteer, Michael T. Rousseau, Group President, St. Jude Medical and  Paul Bae, VP of Human Resources and IT.

The St. Jude offer came without solicitation or contact from us.

Still, we got what we needed to do our work for this Christmas season and beyond.

Make of it what you will.  

All-Righty Then