Sars Efiling / Adobe Acrobat / Linux ??

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CathJ said:
No, a fair number of people are.

And while PDF is well supported, it's not normally used for submitting forms over the web. And PDF is a format, not an app - they're not just mandating the use of pdf, they're mandating the use of a specific piece of software, Adobe Reader.
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I believe Adobe Reader is free to download, and there is a link on the eFiling website. What's so terrible about having to use it? Most people have it installed anyway. And I believe the problem here is an incorrectly installed package?

EDIT: It'd rather say FAULTY INSTALLATION, just in case I made this sound like user stupidity, which it is not :D
 
CathJ said:
No, a fair number of people are.

And while PDF is well supported, it's not normally used for submitting forms over the web. And PDF is a format, not an app - they're not just mandating the use of pdf, they're mandating the use of a specific piece of software, Adobe Reader.
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Even worse, only Adobe Reader 9! Lots of people in government departments and other companies have only Adobe Reader 8.1 installed so they cannot even do e-filing from work which is their only access to the net.
 
Slootvreter said:
I believe Adobe Reader is free to download, and there is a link on the eFiling website. What's so terrible about having to use it? Most people have it installed anyway. And I believe the problem here is an incorrectly installed package?

EDIT: It'd rather say FAULTY INSTALLATION, just in case I made this sound like user stupidity, which it is not :D
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Please read above post. Most people have 8.1. Thats what SARS should have used to save a lot of hazzle.
 
Slootvreter said:
I believe Adobe Reader is free to download, and there is a link on the eFiling website. What's so terrible about having to use it? Most people have it installed anyway. And I believe the problem here is an incorrectly installed package?

EDIT: It'd rather say FAULTY INSTALLATION, just in case I made this sound like user stupidity, which it is not :D
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As SSB pointed out, not everyone has the latest version which is needed. The download is over 22Mb, which if you don't have ADSL, is pretty much impossible. More, not everyone has a PC or access to the net (although that's clearly not the problem in this specific case).

Yes, in this case it's a faulty install; but other people are having issues too (eg. I can't do in IE, since it tells me I don't have Reader installed; and I can't do it in FF, since I get a content error when I try to save).

I have no problem with it being an option, but giving people 3 weeks or less to do the paper version isn't really fair.

And it could all have been so much simpler if they just used a normal HTML form, as opposed to Reader. (And don't even get me started on the lack of support, and complete lack of replies when you email them).
 
CathJ said:
As SSB pointed out, not everyone has the latest version which is needed. The download is over 22Mb, which if you don't have ADSL, is pretty much impossible. More, not everyone has a PC or access to the net (although that's clearly not the problem in this specific case).

Yes, in this case it's a faulty install; but other people are having issues too (eg. I can't do in IE, since it tells me I don't have Reader installed; and I can't do it in FF, since I get a content error when I try to save).

I have no problem with it being an option, but giving people 3 weeks or less to do the paper version isn't really fair.

And it could all have been so much simpler if they just used a normal HTML form, as opposed to Reader. (And don't even get me started on the lack of support, and complete lack of replies when you email them).
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OK, I see what you mean. I wouldn't know why it's not HTML though. Perhaps the data is easier to process for them, who knows. :o Still wouldn;t go as far as to label it a poorly designed system though, since it works for the majority. :)
 
Slootvreter said:
I believe Adobe Reader is free to download, and there is a link on the eFiling website. What's so terrible about having to use it? Most people have it installed anyway. And I believe the problem here is an incorrectly installed package?
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Nope, actually the real problem in my case is that Adobe does not properly support my system, I use 64bit they don't have a 64bit Reader, consequently I am forced to download all sorts of 32bit compatibility packages to get their software to run.

What's so terrible about having to use it? Simple: it's limiting, as another poster pointed out earlier, using regular HTML forms would even have allowed people to fill out their returns from a cellphone or a PDA.

Why don't you tell me what is so good about Acroread that they feel they must use it? :confused:
 
redarrow said:
Yea.. that's what I thought too... but I do have Gtk2 installed (I use Gnome afterall ;)) ..

But... you got me thinking .. I suddenly realised that Acrobat Reader is 32 bit so therefore I need to install 32 bit Gtk2 libs.. :eek:

So I did just that and now it's working .. :) Thanks :)
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Excellent. Those 32 bit compatibility libraries are a must for proprietary stuff.

I'm still annoyed though that I have to further sully my Linux install with horrible unreliable closed source software :mad: The Nvidia graphic drivers are bad enough :p
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I'm not a Gnome fan but I prefer evince to acroread. Unfortunately, to fill in online PDF forms you have to have the plugin, and I'm not aware of anything else that does the job :(.
 
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redarrow said:
Why don't you tell me what is so good about Acroread that they feel they must use it? :confused:
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I wouldn't know why they chose it. And since Acrobat is just a reader, there's not much more you can do with it. So I wouldn't say it's a very useful piece of software, but it's pretty standard these days.
 
Slootvreter said:
I wouldn't know why they chose it. And since Acrobat is just a reader, there's not much more you can do with it. So I wouldn't say it's a very useful piece of software, but it's pretty standard these days.
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It's not really standard, because there a lot of other (and better) readers out there. I use foxit, because it's small, fast, and doesn't cause FF to hang when opening a pdf doc over the web.
 
CathJ said:
It's not really standard, because there a lot of other (and better) readers out there. I use foxit, because it's small, fast, and doesn't cause FF to hang when opening a pdf doc over the web.
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Does this happen with everyone using the same setup as you? (FF and Adobe)
 
BigAl-sa said:
SARS stuff wants Acrobat because of the form filling feature. The SARS stuff wouldn't work without Acrobat 9.
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That's exactly the argument we're making - why not do it using web forms, instead of requiring a particular pdf reader? If any reader could do it, I wouldn't mind as much.

Slootvreter said:
Does this happen with everyone using the same setup as you? (FF and Adobe)
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I don't know. I suspect not everyone, but I don't know.

I'm hoping it will work on my laptop, but haven't gotten around to installing Reader yet. Or maybe it needs the latest version of FF? Or... who knows?

The thing is, it's not their problem to troubleshoot my software issues. I accept that. But then they should have chosen a design which minimised the likelihood of software incompatibilities and other issues.
 
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redarrow said:
Yea... but this is SARS we're talking about, they should be catering for everyone not just "the masses" :p
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Why are ALL linux users idiots?

Anyway.... my solution. Since you are too stubborn to use a real OS that deals with REAL WORLD scenarios, why dont you do it manually? That is how they cater for EVERYONE, once you manage to poke your head out your Linux bubble? It does mean you cant use efiling :P

or alternatively go to an internet cafe.
 
halicon said:
Why are ALL linux users idiots?

Anyway.... my solution. Since you are too stubborn to use a real OS that deals with REAL WORLD scenarios, why dont you do it manually? That is how they cater for EVERYONE, once you manage to poke your head out your Linux bubble? It does mean you cant use efiling :P

or alternatively go to an internet cafe.
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ROFLMAO
 
Look at the fools too simple to learn linux troll this thread. Classic. Expected. Limited.

Windows astroturfers are everywhere. Its like yeah man .. too hard dude. Totally man. Windows rocks and linux sux and we should all vote republican. Like totally.
 
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halicon said:
Why are ALL linux users idiots?

Anyway.... my solution. Since you are too stubborn to use a real OS that deals with REAL WORLD scenarios, why dont you do it manually? That is how they cater for EVERYONE, once you manage to poke your head out your Linux bubble? It does mean you cant use efiling :P

or alternatively go to an internet cafe.
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Errm, I'm not a linux user.

And I didn't want to use eFiling, but SARS screwed up my forms and left it too late for me to do anything but eFile. If they're going to force you into doing it, they have to cater for you.
 
FYI redarrow.. dont know if it will help you.. but Google docs can save documents as PDF`s.. not sure if it allows you to edit them.
 
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