My husband uses an Eee PC running Linux to connect wirelessly to the Web in hotels as he travels. He uses Firefox but has encountered some hotels that require the use of Internet Explorer to connect to their systems.

How do I install Internet Explorer on his Linux system? I'm very much a newbie regarding Linux, since I usually use a Mac.

This might work
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

cheers

The previous poster already linked what I'd suggest for installing IE on Linux but it is important to understand that running IE on Linux is essentially a hack. You should not assume that IE installed via this method will work as well as or exactly the same as IE on Windows.

You may find an easier solution by installing a Firefox add-on which can make Firefox pretend to be IE. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

It may or may not work though depending on how the webpages in question work. Any webpage which refuses to work using Firefox but then does work just because Firefox is pretend to be IE is badly written because it's deciding whether or not your browser can handle the page based solely upon how your browser identifies itself rather than carrying out tests to see whether your browser supports the methods it requires to work. As the aforementioned add-on demonstrates, browser's can easily lie about what they are.

I'd encourage your Husband to file complaints with any Hotel which requires use of Internet Explorer in order to connect to their wireless networks. Internet Explorer is Windows only software - they are in effect locking out anyone who chooses to use an operating system other than Windows. Better still is if he tells the Hotels that he will not stay with them again as a result. (Though such a threat may of course not be practical to make good on.)

Let's recognize that not all newcomers to Linux want to embark on crusades.

This said, I personally will always go after any website or whatever that does not support browsers such as Firefox. (More generally, the issue is to simply make the site work with ALL broswers by follwing the W3C standards.)

I have a reasonable success rate in this---perhaps 75% of the sites I have dealt with have fixed the issue. My favorite case is Bank of America. After 1.5 years, the fixed a glitch that caused problems in FF. I hope to write an article on the whole experience.

For sure

But in this case the problem is really nothing to do with supporting Linux. Hotels won't care about Linux users because they probably won't know what Linux is and there will be very few Linux users visiting them. Mac users however are much more common and by requiring the use of Internet Explorer such Hotels are preventing Mac users from using their wireless just as much as they are preventing Linux users.

The worst thing about such a restriction is that is there is absolutely no good reason for it. It's as dumb and pointless as if they said you could only use the hotel car park if your car is made by Ford.

Thank you! Your posts have expanded my understanding of the problem. My husband thinks he would rather take it up with the hotels than do a hack-like process. If he changes his mind-- or for some reason MUST use IE, we'll try these solutions. Again, thanks for taking time to answer.