User Agent Changes

[Pathduck]

@newscpq Obviously, we assume all Vivaldi users know all there is to know about User-Agent headers and have read RFC-2616 in its entirety :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:

[newscpq]

@potmeklecbohdan said:

Now I'm thinking of switching to another browser

Me too: why on earth should I choose such a particular web browser, to hide its' name? I want to seen, I want to be known: if I'm a freak, I want to be recognized.

I don't want to hide in the mainstream dead flow, I am amongst the 0,02% web browser users in the world and this mean something: I'm not one of the 38% common browser users!

I want to be different from the masses!

Let ME choose my identity online!

[newscpq]

Long Story Short: may Chrome be the default UA string, only if you let Vivaldi users the freedom to choose the identity they want to be known online. That is, do implement the manual UA string spoofing, as a per-site preference, like in Opera it used to be.

Give Vivaldi users the freedom to choose their identity online: we are not using a 0,02% market share browser, to pretend to be into the mainstream web browser users' average!

[andyt_at]

@ruario Hello, I am a manager from the IT department. We decided to use as main webbrowser next to Firefox also Vivaldi. There are two intranet websites, which shows the correct help information for the webbrowser. Both intranet websites use Wordpress as CMS. If there would be an option to set a list of such websites, I would extend it for intranet.blackseals.net and intranet.fob-ps.at.

Another good examples of one of our (my) websites is https://ip.andyt.eu. We use this for internal and temporary private purposes. You may be know there are many such websites, which shows public ip-address or country. All websites I know use (too) much Javascript, cookies, advertising and other unnecessary stuff. They are overloaded. In addition, important information is missing, such used protocol or cipher. Therefore we started for some time an own website for that.

There are many different usage for it: routing problems, connections errors or configuration problems. It is used by IT staff during Support or during development or getting up new services like gateways/firewalls, but also by employees as selfservice through internal help portals.

In many cases it won't make any difference whether Vivaldi or Google Chrome is present or recognized. It could definitely confuse and lead to uncertainties. Especially for employees who don't know about the background. At the moment I don't know a good example, but there are certainly cases where the right user agent is important. I suspect routing incidents when working with multiple web browsers and devices.

I hope I was able to provide more information about our considerations?

[Catweazle]

Hello @andyt_at , the page I know is Google Sites, the new format does not accept Vivaldi to edit. In the forum there is a thread with other examples.

[andyt_at]

Thank you for response.

@Gwen-Dragon According to my knowledge, every JS is running directly on the webbrowser. HTTP header is a smart way for server to detect that. Maybe not the best at all, but less traffic and scripts through web connection.

@Gwen-Dragon What do you mean? You mean examples which don't work fine if Vivaldi send normal UA?

[zakius]

Opera uses Opera properly, it's useless chropera that sends OPR
"There is a downside for us in doing this since Vivaldi will effectively disappear from third party rankings of browser popularity"
most of people use proper blockers anyway so you aren't getting counted by client sided scripts

[Fang]

I remember old day when I used Opera and I had to change User Agent to get new version of Google services or I get old map or mail and docs not working at all... BTW. In old Opera you could change User Agent in options. Can this be changed in vivaldi without installing the extension?

[Pesala]

@Fang You can fake the user agent by opening developers tools (F12); in the 3 vertical dots menu select Network conditions;
User agent, uncheck Select Automatically, and then select "Chrome - Windows."

[rseiler]

Even new Edge is subject to shenanigans:
https://twitter.com/teroalhonen/status/1206301834907934736

That's from google.com....

[newscpq]

@pathduck: exactly, didn't we?

[newscpq]

@pathduck: anyway, UA spoofing is such a basic feature and easy to understand, that I really don't know why it shouldn't be possible to set it as we like it: Vivaldi is all about customisation, so I don't see why we should all pretend to be Chrome. We should be given the choice to appear online as we like.
I spent all my browsing life manually spoofing UA: I really could switch to Firefox, for this reason.

[burnout426]

Ideally, there should be a global "Remove Vivaldi from User-Agent" option that defaults to enabled. Then, there should be a "Remove Vivaldi from User-Agent" site preference that defaults to inheriting the global setting with the option to explicitly enable/disable to override the global on per-site basis. Vivaldi could then have default site prefs for the good sites where "Remove Vivaldi from User-Agent" is explicitly set to disabled (but you could still change it if you wanted). Too bad Chromium doesn't support adding these settings as a build option for 3rd-party builds. Opera, Brave and Edge could do it too then.

It'd be pushing it, but it'd also be nice to have a User-Agent string value setting. The default would be "Default" which would be the normal Vivaldi user-agent or whatever the --user-agent command-line switch sets it to. The "Remove Vivaldi from User-Agent" setting would work with this. The non-default setting would be "custom" where you put the string you want there. You would then have a site pref override for the string too.

[Catweazle]

@Gwen-Dragon , calendar site works for me, but maybe this also helps
https://www.computerbild.de/download/Fotokalender-erstellen-und-ausdrucken-16733019.html

[A Former User]

@burnout426 said in User Agent Changes:

It'd be pushing it, but it'd also be nice to have a User-Agent string value setting.

…with escapes for versions and environment (would you want to change it after every upgrade and every time you decide to use it on a different OS?)…

Ha, I knew that it was too good to be real. But why did I have to see this dream?

[Catweazle]

@Gwen-Dragon , I have not finished creating a calendar, being a paid service, but I have been able to design. The only problem was that it was extraordinarily slow.
The other pages I put work perfectly, although you must print the calendar yourself. It may be an alternative (use matte photo paper for this)

[mossman]

@burnout426 that was my first thought too when seeing this blog post. "Why not set default to spoof as Chrome but have a settings option to identify as Vivaldi instead...?"

Then, to check for user agent issues, have a toggle in the quick commands to switch the current session between Chrome/Vivaldi...

[Ruarí]

@mossman I fail to see how that would help unless we were planning to go back to using a Vivaldi UA

[Blackbird]

@ruario Perhaps it revolves around one's thinking about Vivaldi's "vision" for how it markets itself. Some loyal users possibly want to more directly 'help' raise Vivaldi's presence in marketshare stats and to identify/encourage sites that block Vivaldi to remove those blocks. On the other hand, perhaps Vivaldi feels that isn't a battle worth fighting.

[A Former User]

@ruario Don't forget the philosophy: adapting to users' needs. (I didn't want to say this just to support my opinion, but that's maybe what I needed to…) It would help your users that want Vivaldi to identify self as Vivaldi (or — OK — Crivaldi) and not as Chrome. You don't have to plan it right now, but we plan it (and if you don't restrict --user-agent and mods, we can do it).