Comments on: So Shiretoko isn’t Firefox So Why Call It That?

By: drubin

drubin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:33:25 +0000

@Piraja: Ye simple to solve. This issue was resolved in karmic so now I am very happy (Until I install the next pre-release hehe)

By: Piraja

Piraja — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:27:47 +0000

In Shiretoko (or Firefox 3.x) go to Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons > Search All Add-ons > [type:] user agent. The first suggestion will probably be an add-on called User Agent Switcher. Pretty handy.

By: sirald66

sirald66 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:54:02 +0000

Fine, let folks have their Shiretoko. Can I have my Firefox 3.5 now?

The excuse I’ve heard is that Ubuntu wanted Firefox 3.0 to be the default browser, so they renamed 3.5; thank you for making that decision for me…..

Since FF is the app I run most, this prompts me to consider other distributions.

ANDY

By: Ben Crowell

Ben Crowell — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:51:40 +0000

@Drubin: There are some valid reasons for sniffing for the string “Firefox.” For example, I have a web site that uses a lot of math. I serve it up as mathml to ff3 users, bitmaps to everyone else. The alternative would be to bring ff users down to the level of other browsers that don’t implement mathml properly.

By: drubin

drubin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:03:11 +0000

@Daniel Holbert: Thanks very interisting read. The point about the user-agent string was just an another annoyance if I install Firefox I expected it to be called Firefox. (This wasn’t aimed at the lack of web devs knowing what they are doing)

By: Daniel Holbert

Daniel Holbert — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:51:56 +0000

Drubin: For a website, the only relevant part of that user agent string is the rendering engine, “Gecko”, and the version, “1.9.1″. If they’re sniffing for the string “Firefox”, that’s poor website design on their part.

For more, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Sardisson/Gecko_is_Gecko#Sniffing_for_.E2.80.9CFirefox.E2.80.9D_:_Bad

By: drubin

drubin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:41:42 +0000

@Chris Irwin: I have no issue with the branding. My issue is with sudo apt-get install *firefox3.5*. They are claiming you are installing firefox but you aren’t really are you? BTW if they wanted to include iceweasel and you were installing iceweasel I think I would be ok with it.

Also note this is EASILY fixable by changing your user-agent using http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/ this is just annoying. There are always ways to confuse and annoy the web developers that think they are so cool by putting “Sorry please install IE 5..”

By: drubin

drubin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:37:24 +0000

@Michael: When where? /me is waiting to see it in the repositories. Where does this information come from.

By: Chris Irwin

Chris Irwin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:36:35 +0000

I have not had any problems whatsoever, with facebook or otherwise. Here is my user-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.1pre) Gecko/20090707 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Shiretoko/3.5.1pre AutoPager/0.5.2.2 (http://www.teesoft.info/)

IIRC Mozilla got rather uptight about non-official builds being branded as “firefox” as additional patches or build options could have caused issues that would not be experienced with an official build. Debian rebranded to iceweasel due to this. Iirc Canonical worked out some sort of review deal where Mozilla will approve their builds and allow official branding, which has not happened yet it seems.

Shiretoko is the code-name for Firefox 3.1/3.5, not some randomly assigned branding. The only issue I’ve had using it is the window icon is not as recognizable.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:26:53 +0000

As of today Shiretoko is called Firefox again. Even if you install the Version from the Jaunty repos.