Abrowser and Ubuntu

2 respostas [Última entrada]
Hiawatha
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Joined: 12/26/2011

I've noticed that if I do a search on google, the results page includes ubuntu.com in one of the URL variables. Searching for "something" goes to:

http://www.google.com/search?q=something&btnG=Search&oe=utf-8&rls=com.ubuntu%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&client=abrowser-a

the "rls" url variable is com.ubuntu instead of info.trisquel

Similarly, Abrowser identifies itself to websites as:

Mozilla/5.0 (Ubuntu; X11; Linux x86_64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20120108 Abrowser/9.0.1

with an OS of Ubuntu instead of Trisquel.

Is this intentional?

I know that technically, Trisquel is descended from Ubuntu and for many purposes is close to identical - but I would think that having browsers or other agents identify themselves as running under Ubuntu instead of under Trisquel would be counter-productive:

If there are automated systems on the internet that try to do things like track how many people use which operating systems, Trisquel would slip under the radar.

Or is there a technical reason this can't be done - ie, would it somehow break something?

(I just tested icecat - on google, the rls variable is org.gnu.gnuzilla)

akifo

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Joined: 12/23/2011

Interesting. I'll submit the task. Maybe it will work.

Chris

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Joined: 04/23/2011

I think the way you don't break compatibility is to add Trisquel to the string. Although depending on how sites do the checking you might get identified as having an incompatible browser/operating system still. Ubuntu isn't terribly well supported either amongst sites that do this kind of thing though so it probably won't have much of a negative impact on users.