[Bug 397211] Re: Shiretoko user agent string breaks compatibilty with major websites

[pauliephonic]

Before I begin, I will echo what others have said, in that sites that
restrict access to certain user-agents are mostly wrong in doing so.

I can also fully understand Ubuntu changing the Firefox application name
and branding to Shiretoko, so as differentiate it on a users system, and
to allow both to be installed side-by-side.

I do not however, understand the reasoning behind changing the user
agent.

The user agent is a valid method of identifying a browsers capabilities
to visited websites. Some web-servers and javascript libraries rely on
the user-agent to handles how content is rendered and to deal with
browser quirks.

The only valid reason I can think of to change the user-agent of what
is, in essence, standard Firefox 3.5, would be if the functionality were
different, or the rendering engine rendered differently. I don't think
that this is the case.

This decision, adds unnecessary difficulties for end users, for no
technical reason I can think of (I'll happily stand corrected if I am
wrong though :)

Cheers and keep up the good work. P

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Shiretoko user agent string breaks compatibilty with major websites
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/397211
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