Brief history of browser User-Agent)

Source: Internet
Author: User
Tags seamonkey

In the beginning there was NCSA Mosaic, and mosaic called itselfNcsa_mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), And mosaic displayed pictures along with text, and there was much rejoicing.

And behold, then came a new Web browser known as "Mozilla", being short for "mosaic killer," But Mosaic was not amused, so the public name was changed to Netscape, and Netscape called itselfMozilla/1.0 (win3.1), And there was more rejoicing. and Netscape supported frames, and frames became popular among the people, but Mosaic did not support frames, and so came "user agent sniffing" and to "Mozilla" webmasters sent frames, but to other browsers they sent not frames.

And Netscape said, let us make fun of Microsoft and refer to Windows as "poorly debugged device drivers," and Microsoft was angry. and so Microsoft made their own web browser, which they called Internet Explorer, hoping for it to be a "Netscape Killer ". and Internet Explorer supported frames, and yet was not Mozilla, and so was not given frames. and Microsoft grew impatient, and did not wish to wait for webmasters to learn of IE and begin to send it frames, and so Internet Explorer declared that it was "Mozilla compatible" and began to impersonate Netscape, and called itselfMozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95), And Internet Explorer stored ed frames, and all of Microsoft was happy, but webmasters were confused.

And Microsoft sold IE with windows, and made it better than Netscape, and the first browser war raged upon the face of the land. and behold, Netscape was killed, and there was much rejoicing at Microsoft. but Netscape was reborn as Mozilla, and Mozilla built Gecko, and called itselfMozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; RV: 1.1) Gecko/20020826, And gecko was the rendering engine, and gecko was good. And Mozilla became Firefox, and called itselfMozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; SV-se; RV: 1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0, And Firefox was very good. And gecko began to multiply, and other browsers were born that used its code, and they called themselvesMozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; RV: 1.7.2) Gecko/20040825 Camino/0.8.1The one, andMozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; RV: 1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 SeaMonkey/1.0Another, each pretending to be Mozilla, and all of them powered by gecko.

And gecko was good, and IE was not, and sniffing was reborn, and gecko was given good web code, and other browsers were not. and the followers of Linux were much sorrowed, because they had built Konqueror, whose engine was khtml, which they thought was as good as gecko, but it was not Gecko, and so was not given the good pages, and so konquerer began to pretend to be "like gecko" to get the good pages, and called itselfMozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; FreeBSD) (khtml, like gecko)And there was much confusion.

Then cometh opera and said, "surely we shoshould allow our users to decide which browser we shoshould impersonate," and so Opera created a menu item, and opera called itselfMozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) opera 9.51, OrMozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en; RV: 1.8.1) Gecko/20061208 Firefox/2.0.0 opera 9.51, OrOpera/9.51 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)Depending on which option the user selected.

And Apple built safari, and used khtml, but added neural features, and forked the project, and called it WebKit, but wanted pages written for khtml, And so safari called itselfMozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; de-de) applewebkit/85.7 (khtml, like gecko) Safari/85.5, And it got worse.

And Microsoft feared Firefox greatly, and Internet Explorer returned, and called itselfMozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0)And it rendered good code, but only if webmasters commanded it to do so.

And then Google built chrome, and chrome used WebKit, and it was like safari, and wanted pages built for Safari, And so pretended to be safari. and thus chrome used WebKit, and pretended to be safari, and WebKit pretended to be khtml, and khtml pretended to be Gecko, and all browsers pretended to be Mozilla, and chrome called itselfMozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) applewebkit/525.13 (khtml, like gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13, And the user agent string was a complete mess, and near useless, and everyone pretended to be everyone else, and confusion abounded.

Share from http://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/

Translation:

At first, a browser called NCSA Mosaic came to the east, claiming to be ncsa_mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), rendering webpage images and texts, and people saw the great popularity.
A browser on the West is Mozilla, short for "Dead Mosaic. Mosaic is not happy. Mozilla zookeeper renamed the web site, but claimed to be Mozilla/1.0 (win3.1). the masses of the people saw a new browser better than others. Wangjing's first web page framework won the hearts of the masses. Unfortunately, mosaic does not know the framework. In order to reduce the trouble and wisdom of the working people, it creates a UA Probe: regardless of the framework that you call Mozilla, all users who call Mozilla will not send a framework!
Wangjing started to play with Microsoft. Windows is called the "blue screen crash driver ". Microsoft was so angry that it had vowed to make its own browser to make the Internet Explorer. IE has a framework, but it is not Mozilla. As a result, the servers that meet strangers do not have a framework card: Sorry, you are a mosaic. Microsoft was impatient and felt that it had to wait for the network administrator to figure out What ie was like, so she asked IE to say that she was Mozilla compatible so that she could pretend to be a web site.Mozilla/1.22 (Compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95 ). Since then, Internet Explorer has also been used as a framework, and Microsoft enjoys great popularity, while the inexplicable UA has caused various network administrators to turn dizzy.
Windows began to bind IE, and Internet Explorer became better and better, so the first browser competition started. As a result, Netscape suffered a fiasco. Microsoft went up and down, but did not notice that Netscape became the Mozilla Foundation after its death. Mozilla made Gecko, claiming to be Mozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; RV: 1.1) Gecko/20020826. Gecko is an excellent rendering engine. Mozilla later became Firefox, claiming to be Mozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; SV-se; RV: 1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0. Firefox is an excellent solution. Gecko began to expand and expand again, and many browsers emerged on the shoulders of gecko. One of them was Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-us; RV: 1.7.2)Gecko/20040825 Camino/0.8.1 and Mozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; RV: 1.8.1.8)Gecko/20071008 SeaMonkey/1.0. All these browsers pretend to be Mozilla, and all of them have Gecko's heart.
Gecko is good, and IE is not good, so UA detection is full of life: say that you have a gecko browser with a good web page, and the rest of the browsers are not standard. But Linux users are not satisfied-because they have khtml Konqueror, and they feel that their khtml is as good as gecko. However, khtml is not Gecko, so the server can only get leftovers with IE. Therefore, Konqueror began to claim "like gecko", full name Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; FreeBSD) (khtml,Like Gecko). Various network administrators were dizzy again.
At this time, the liberal opera came and said, "Whoever impersonates, the user decides !" Therefore, opera creates a menu. Based on user selection, opera can be Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) opera 9.51, or Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en; RV: 1.8.1) Gecko/20061208 Firefox/2.0.0 opera 9.51, or opera/9.51 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en ).
After that, Apple made safari and used khtml. After hitting, repairing, and completing the work, he changed his name to WebKit. Safari wants to use a webpage for khtml, so it claims to be Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; de-de) applewebkit/85.7 (Khtml, Like gecko) Safari/85.5. The world is getting more and more chaotic.
Microsoft feared Firefox to seize the market, So Ie returned again, claiming to be Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0 ). IE 8 is capable of rendering the web page-but only when the network administrator explicitly commands it to do so.
Then Google has chrome again. Chrome uses WebKit like safari, so if you want to write a webpage to Safari, you can pretend that you are safari. WebKit pretends to be khtml, khtml pretends to be Gecko, and all browsers around the world pretend to be Mozilla. Our chrome claims to beMozilla/5.0 (windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) applewebkit/525.13 (Khtml, Like gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27Safari/525.13, the name is almost useless in the dark. At this time, a group of browsers impersonate each other, and it's hard for everyone to figure out.

Brief history of browser User-Agent)

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