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Submitted by Adrian Malacoda on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 01:20

Abrowser's user-agent string

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Sun, 10/16/2011 - 01:20
Adrian Malacoda
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In terms of rendering capability, Abrowser is functionally equivalent to Firefox 6. However, its user-agent string reads like:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:6.0.2) Gecko/20110916 Abrowser/6.0.2

While I think browser sniffing among the stupidest trends in web development, the sad truth is that there are sites that refuse to allow any browser that doesn't have a well-known name like "Firefox" or "IE." Case in point - my ISP whitelists IE, Firefox, and Safari and blocks every other browser.

The obvious workaround (and what I eventually did) is to install a user-agent switcher, but I believe this is too much to ask non-savvy users. I think it would be beneficial to alter the user-agent string to include Firefox so as to placate ill-educated web developers. Debian has done this with Iceweasel; see http://www.useragentstring.com/pages/Iceweasel/

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Sun, 10/16/2011 - 04:16
#1
grvrulz
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I agree, we should have both firefox and abrowser in the user-agent string.

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Sun, 10/16/2011 - 21:02
#2
Nathan
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I agree. even on the Firefox Add-ons page, it asks people to install Firefox.

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Fri, 10/21/2011 - 20:24
#3
Nathan
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I think the user-agent string is the reason Google doesn't display many pages the right way.

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Sat, 10/22/2011 - 04:12
#4
Nathan
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I found this
http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/

It doesn't appear to have a license, but he does provide the source code.

What is the regular Firefox GNU/Linux user-agent string, so I can add it and use it on those pesky sites that don't follow the rules?

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Sat, 01/28/2012 - 09:44
#5
miga
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Under the "Source" tab on the site:
http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/source/

It clearly states "All files are distributed for free under the terms of the GNU General Public License." So, it is a free software add-on.

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Sat, 10/22/2011 - 04:16
#6
Adrian Malacoda
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This addon is under the GPL. It is listed in IceCat's extension table:
http://www.gnu.org/s/gnuzilla/addons.html

Since abrowser is based on Firefox 6.0, the following user-agent string should be sufficient: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:6.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0

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Sat, 10/22/2011 - 04:21
#7
Nathan
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Thanks. The only thing is in About Abrowser, the version number is 7.0.1. Is it still just 6.0 Firefox?

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Sat, 10/22/2011 - 05:11
#8
Adrian Malacoda
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Well if your abrowser is 7.0 then you should use that number in place of 6.0 in the user-agent string. My abrowser is 6.0.2 though, so that's probably where I got it from.

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#9
Adrian Malacoda
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Well if your abrowser is 7.0 then you should use that number in place of 6.0
in the user-agent string. My abrowser is 6.0.2 though, so that's probably
where I got it from.

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#10
Nathan
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Thanks. The only thing is in About Abrowser, the version number is 7.0.1. Is
it still just 6.0 Firefox?

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#11
Adrian Malacoda
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In terms of rendering capability, Abrowser is functionally equivalent to
Firefox 6. However, its user-agent string reads like:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:6.0.2) Gecko/20110916 Abrowser/6.0.2

While I think browser sniffing among the stupidest trends in web development,
the sad truth is that there are sites that refuse to allow any browser that
doesn't have a well-known name like "Firefox" or "IE." Case in point - my ISP
whitelists IE, Firefox, and Safari and blocks every other browser.

The obvious workaround (and what I eventually did) is to install a user-agent
switcher, but I believe this is too much to ask non-savvy users. I think it
would be beneficial to alter the user-agent string to include Firefox so as
to placate ill-educated web developers. Debian has done this with Iceweasel;
see http://www.useragentstring.com/pages/Iceweasel/

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#12
grvrulz
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I agree, we should have both firefox and abrowser in the user-agent string.

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#13
Nathan
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I agree. even on the Firefox Addon page, it asks people to install Firefox.

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#14
Nathan
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I found this
http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/

It doesn't appear to have a license, but he does provide the source code.

What is the regular Firefox GNU/Linux user-agent string, so I can add it and
use it on those pesky sites that don't follow the rules?

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#15
Nathan
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I think the user-agent string is the reason Google doesn't display many pages
the right wat.

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Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:48
#16
Adrian Malacoda
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This addon is under the GPL. It is listed in IceCat's extension table:
http://www.gnu.org/s/gnuzilla/addons.html

Since abrowser is based on Firefox 6.0, the following user-agent string
should be sufficient: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:6.0) Gecko/20100101
Firefox/6.0

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Sat, 01/28/2012 - 02:28
#17
marioger
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I think there is an option in seamonkey to act like... Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, etc... Don't know if it could help.

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Sat, 01/28/2012 - 10:30
#18
lembas
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I think this is a good idea.

Here's the same bug in Debian http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=399633

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