Online shopping and Haiku web browsers

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#1

I tried ordering an item from an online store, while using Haiku x86_64. Here is my experience:

  1. WebPositive was not able to create a proper search field so that I could search for the item.

  2. Otter Browser worked well with rendering of the site in general. Unfortunately, the transfer to the payment system kept refreshing, but never actually completed, so that I could pay.

  3. I tried installing Web / Epiphany, but got the following message with a number of solutions, as can be seen below. I didnā€™t try any of them as I was unsure of the effects to other programs and the system as a wholeā€¦

Not sure if anyone else has tried this, so I am posting my above results first and foremost for documentation. If there is a solution, so much the betterā€¦

haikudepot
haikudepot691Ɨ464 57.9 KB

#2

Select ā€œsolution 1ā€, you probably have package cairo installed vs xcairo, choosing solution 1 will take care of that.

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#3

Thanks for that, it worked, but with a caveat. I normally use a Danish keyboard, and I have Haiku set up to use a Danish keyboard as default. However, Epiphany is apparently unable to provide me with the necessary Alt Gr characters such as ā€œ@ā€ that work without any problems in WebPositive and Otter Browser, forcing me to switch to the US keyboard layout. Not a deal breaker, but not optimal eitherā€¦

#4

Itā€™s a known issue, canā€™t help you there :slight_smile:

#5

There is a ticket for that here:

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#6

Please, donā€™t forget that if Haiku is wonderful, it is not really secure. Better avoid to do such transactions with it even if thatā€™s working.

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#7

I would agree with the above; use a ā€˜liveā€™ Linux pendrive. :slight_smile:

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#8

No disagreement, but I thought that I would give it a try to get a better idea of the web browser capabilities on Haiku. I also tried accessing my MEGA account as a trial. Only Epiphany worksā€¦

#9

This is a bad idea, because the user will consider the prepared usb as ā€œsafe&secureā€ and do not attempt (or not possible) to update the system and its components, so at the end of the day the user will use an outdated, bug ridden, vulnerable old linux installation.
Yeah, the user could recreate the usb using the latest os release every time he want to access his webbank/buy something, but 1 day after the release it becomes outdated again, so this ā€œuse a live linux usbā€ practice feels terribly careless to me. But thats my 2 cents.

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#10

I donā€™t think so, but as you say, it will need to be kept up to date, as should your main O/S.

If you fail to update any O/S, it ā€˜couldā€™ leave you vulnerable online, no matter what O/S you use.

#11

I have curently re-installed Haiku to only one partition on my computer and have installed rEFInd in preparation for installing a second OS (Linux) on another partition, to avoid using Haiku where security is important. Unfortunately, I havenā€™t yet figured out how to force what I believe is the Calamares installer on Q4OS to not install a boot loaderā€¦

#12

For most live USB setups, this is true. However, persistent live USB setups can mitigate this somewhat by allowing package updates to be saved. On the other hand, this leads to lessened security due to being able to save data in a live USB environment.

So, the user will have to use their best judgment on whatā€™s acceptable to them.

#13

Can MFA add the missing robustness here, or is that also just a bandaid sold as security?

#14

MFA and passwordless security can add robustness, while being more convenient than the traditional single password-based security. However the trade-off is that if someone loses their physical security key or MFA device, theyā€™re completely locked out.

On Linux, passwordless security and MFA can be challenging due to the fragmented nature of the platform. Been wondering whether would be possible to implement more seamless passwordless security on Haiku, since it is a unified platform akin to Windows and macOS. This could be one way to remain single-user while having relatively convenient security (an oxymoron most other times), alongside drive encryption.

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