Predictably, Microsoft's 'help' in turning "Britain's e-government vision into a reality" has mysteriously turned into a lockout for users of anything other than IE on Windows. Linux, Netscape and Mac (even with IE, friends...) can look but not touch, because the digital certificate system selected by the developers mysteriously always seems to lead to IE 5.01 or above on Windows. The developer is, ahem, Microsoft, and the site in question, gateway.gov.uk, is intended to be the portal that acts as "the centralised registration service for all e-Government services in the United Kingdom." Microsoft announced this one in March with much ballyhoo - as well it might. The portal is a core part of the Blair government's ambition to put 100 per cent of government services online by 2005, so this is big bucks.
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