Why all browsers user-agent are Mozilla

At the earliest, there was a browser called NCSA Mosaic, labeled ncsa_mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), which supported text display while supporting images, so the web began to get interesting.

Then appeared a new Web browser, "Mozilla", actually is "mosaic Terminator" meaning, this make mosaic very uncomfortable, (after all Mosaic debut early, lake old), new browser finally officially announced the name is Netscape, It is more fun to label yourself as mozilla/1.0 (Win3.1). Netscape Support Framework shows that later the framework is popular among us, but Mosaic does not support the framework ah, so the great "user-based detection" technology appeared, if it is "Mozilla", then to the support framework of the page, as for other browsers, the page is sent without frames.

Netscape want to tease Microsoft, call windows " Almost never had a debug device drive ", the latter was annoyed. Microsoft then launched its own web browser, called Internet Explorer, to make it a "Netscape Terminator." Internet Explorer also supports the framework, but it's not Mozilla, so no one sends it a page with frames. Microsoft is slowly irritable, no longer hope that the webmaster gradually know IE and give it a framework, but claims that they are "compatible with Mozilla", and began to imitate Netscape, labeled himself as mozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95), so Internet Explorer can also receive frames, the entire Microsoft Ecstasy, but webmasters are starting to get a little confused.

Microsoft sold IE and Windows together and made the product better than Netscape, and opened the first browser battle. As you know, Netscape was killed and Microsoft won the big win. But later Netscape with Mozilla's new name reborn, constructs the gecko, the nominal is mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U Windows NT 5.0; En-us; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826,gecko belongs to the rendering engine and has excellent performance. Mozilla has developed Firefox, labeled mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U Windows NT 5.1; Sv-se; rv:1.7.5) gecko/20041108 firefox/1.0, and Firefox performance is excellent. Gecko expands quickly, some browsers use its code and are labeled as mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U PPC Mac OS X mach-o; En-us; rv:1.7.2) gecko/20040825 camino/0.8.1, this is one, and mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U Windows NT 5.1; De rv:1.8.1.8) gecko/20071008 seamonkey/1.0, and the other, they are all disguised as Mozilla, and are also based on Gecko support.

Gecko performance Excellent, ie is very poor, so the identity of the screening occurs again, the transmission to gecko is a well-designed page code, other browsers do not have this treatment. Linux followers are sad because they create konqueror based on the khtml engine, but they don't get the code, and even though they think khtml is as good as Gecko, Konquerer begins to disguise himself as "gecko." That to get a good web page, and the nominal self for mozilla/5.0 (compatible; konqueror/3.2; FreeBSD (khtml, like Gecko), the world is even more confusing.

Then came the Zhu er of opera, declaring "allow the user to decide who to make the browser," and it offers mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; EN) Opera 9.51, mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; U En rv:1.8.1) gecko/20061208 firefox/2.0.0 Opera 9.51,opera/9.51 (Windows NT 5.1; U EN) for everyone to choose who is the choice.

Apple developed Safari, used khtml, and added a lot of new features, and then simply one pot and called WebKit, but it had the hope of getting those pages written for Khtml, so safari nominally mozilla/5.0 ( Macintosh; U PPC Mac OS X; De-de) applewebkit/85.7 (khtml, like Gecko) safari/85.5, the world is more chaotic.

Microsoft is increasingly concerned about the development of Firefox, restarting the development of Internet Explorer, nominally its own mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0), can render the code well, but it depends on whether the site administrator instructs it to do so.

Google also developed its own browser Chrome, using WebKit, a bit like safari, hoping to get a Web page for Safari, and decided to pretend to be safari. So, Chrome used the WebKit rendering engine, wanted to pretend to be safari, and WebKit disguised themselves as khtml,khtml and disguised as Gecko, while all the browsers are claiming to be Mozilla, so, Chrome claims to be mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U Windows NT 5.1; En-US) applewebkit/525.13 (khtml, like Gecko) chrome/0.2.149.27 safari/525.13,,useragent string completely chaotic, and almost no longer play any role, Everyone claims to be someone else, and chaos fills the Earth.

A bit of the taste of ridicule, can be summed up as a sentence: Mozilla is Netscape mascot, but also Netscape Navigator browser use of internal development code. As a result of Netscape's early influence, until today, all browsers, including IE, reported their browser identity to the Web server, beginning with "Mozilla", indicating that they were Mozilla-compatible. That's the reason.

The method of viewing the browser tag is also easy, through JavaScript statements:

Javascript:alert (navigator.useragent)

Enter the above code in the Address bar, and then enter.

Reprint Annotated: http://www.eamonning.com/blog/view/289

(turn) Why all browsers user-agent are Mozilla