 Microsoft Blocks Firefox! |
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 Jun 19 2005, 11:10 PM
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#1
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Super Member  Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 14-August 04 Member No.: 808  |
http://reporter.mozilla.org/app/query/?hos...bmit_query=true
there are currently 43 reports QUOTE It appears Microsoft is blocking Firefox from a number of it’s webpages. I’ve heard of this before, but now thanks to the new reporter tool, we have hard data to back it up. At the time I’m writing this there are 39 reports in the database. I should note that we have a little over 1000 users in the system at this point, so 39 reports is rather significant. Most of the reports are about Firefox are that they are being told: Sorry, we are unable to show you the page you requested. Please try again later. In IE obviously the links work. Spoofing the user agent to that of Internet Explorer also has success. The area being reported is the downloads section of their site. Yes downloads worked. I tried several and had no problems. Besides for illegitimately blocking Firefox, Microsoft has mislabeled their error message to encourage the user to “Please try again later”, as if it’s a server issue and will likely be resolved shortly. At least on Windows Update they say right away that it requires Internet Explorer, which is an honest dialog as Firefox does not support ActiveX which is used by Auto Update. The only issue I can see with those pages is that the gradient on the top of the Microsoft site doesn’t render correctly. As I recall (and Asa blogged a while back) the css for it isn’t in the specs, hence unsupported in Gecko, though I haven’t verified that as I’m not a css guru. The same problem appears on the Microsoft homepage, but they don’t block that (presumably because the point of the page is to get people to buy things). Come on Microsoft. You did move a bit towards standards. Save the browser sniffing for when it’s necessary (such as Windows Update). Let your customers use the browser that they feel comfortable using. Here’s a hint. We’re closing in on 65 million downloads in the next few hours. That’s 65 million people who believe in choice. Isn’t it time to respect computer users choices? I hope to see Microsoft address and correct this issue. Update: some report Firefox 1.0.4 working. Safari and OmniWeb seem to be blocked as well with that cryptic error message. this is crazy there just jelous cuz their products s**k b***s This post has been edited by BuffaloHELP: Jun 20 2005, 05:59 AM |
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Jun 19 2005, 11:45 PM
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#2
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Newbie [Level 2] Group: Members Posts: 37 Joined: 3-May 05 Member No.: 6,577 |
W00T!!I cant believe it!!Stupid MS,i've always hated them...FF is so much better then IE...omg...
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Jun 19 2005, 11:52 PM
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#3
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King of My WOrld Group: Members Posts: 482 Joined: 11-October 04 Member No.: 1,665 |
wow ... that is kinda stupid for them to do that .. hoping that people will that firefox is not as competent as internet explorer ... but i think they will do something to solve the thing ... or not there will be another market monopoly lawsuit
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Jun 19 2005, 11:55 PM
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#4
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King of My WOrld Group: Members Posts: 482 Joined: 11-October 04 Member No.: 1,665 |
After thinking for awhile ... i think that we cannot do anything about this ... microsoft owns their website ... and they can support any browser they like ... they can also not support any browser they like ... it's their rights ..
So ... if you want to download things from microsoft ... just use internet explorer instead of firefox .. |
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Jun 19 2005, 11:57 PM
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#5
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Super Member Group: Members Posts: 372 Joined: 14-October 04 Member No.: 1,736 myCENT:ZERO |
I'm beginning to dislike Microsoft more and more. That is just plain ridiculous of them! Most of the time, if it won't work in Firefox, I don't visit that site. I only use IE if it's the only browser on the computer. I highly doubt that they'd ever force a Firefox user to switch back to IE. Firefox is just plain better and has more features than IE will ever have.
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Jun 20 2005, 05:55 AM
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#6
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apt-get moo  Group: [MODERATOR] Posts: 2,236 Joined: 28-May 05 From: Devon, England Member No.: 7,593  myCENT:20.88 |
Its amazing that Microsoft, who have already been accused of holding a monopoly on everything software related, needs to block out other browsers when there is no need to. If a site doesn't appear correctly in Firefox then obviously the webmaster doesn't care about the millions of potential surfers they are missing out on. Microsoft is even implementing tabbed browsing into IE, so obviously even Microsoft thinks FF is better!
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Jun 20 2005, 06:36 AM
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#7
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Member [Level 1] Group: Members Posts: 68 Joined: 17-June 05 From: Slovenia Member No.: 8,341 |
QUOTE(ashiezai @ Jun 20 2005, 12:55 AM) After thinking for awhile ... i think that we cannot do anything about this ... microsoft owns their website ... and they can support any browser they like ... they can also not support any browser they like ... it's their rights .. So ... if you want to download things from microsoft ... just use internet explorer instead of firefox ..  That is a really stupid decision made by microsoft. With all this it looks like they want to have a monopol in everything connected with the computer software. And if that will happen, yeah they'll be full of money, but they will be also the most hated corporation in the world. But that wouldn't be the biggest problem. Users of software will be cut of of many privileges and better things that could be avaliable if there would be many software productions. But let's turn to this problem. As ashiezai said, they have all rights to made his website avaliable just for those with Internet Explorer, but they are stupid, because with this they are losing potential clients. Maybe one day they'll see that they are doing the wrong thing 
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Jun 20 2005, 06:39 AM
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#8
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Super Member Group: Members Posts: 282 Joined: 17-December 04 Member No.: 2,764 |
It’s an open secret that Microsoft aims to make the users of other better browsers inconvenient. Say, their website for Windows update is accessible by the stupid Internet Explorer only. When you enter hotmail and blank out the user-agent, the system would pop up a window asking you to get their stupid browser. More outrageously, Microsoft often uses the security-nightmare, ActiveX in their webpage and so alternative browsers often have problem accessing them. I think the most foolish thing is that some web developers only have Internet Explorer in mind. Say, the online teaching software of my university, WebCT only accepts Internet Explorer. This is outrageous.
Microsoft stole many technologies form others. The JavaScript and Jscript, the Java and the dot Net platform. In my opinion, the only thing that Microsoft is still not able to copy is Macromedia’s Flash. The Flash player has become such a success that Microsoft is still not able to come up with something equivalent. If Firefox is to survive and re-colonize the market, perhaps some sites should make themselves Firefox only. |
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Jun 20 2005, 02:06 PM
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#9
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Super Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 14-August 04 Member No.: 808 |
whats next? will they make a better outlook express? will this teach them that open source is better? can office compete with openoffice? i dont know i bet if microsoft cant figure out these problems, they will jus |