Why the treachary

[slave]

I was browsing Microsoft's website and I came across some very poorly formatted text.  Out of curiousity I told Mozilla to identify itself as IE, and, well pictures speak louder than words:

Identifying as Mozilla

Identifying as IE 6 on XP

My question to Microsoft is... WHY????

[ November 02, 2002: Message edited by: Windows XP User #5225982375 ]

[voidmain]

Could you or someone else do me a huge favor? Do a "Save Page As" for each user agent setting on that page and put them somewhere (I know I could unblock Microsoft and do it, but I would have to go through a lot more than that as I *really* have them blocked out including empty microsoft.com DNS zones). I would like to compare the difference in source that the spit out based on the user agent. I should be able to formulate an opinion if there were some bad intentions here.

[ November 02, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[slave]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
Could you or someone else do me a huge favor? Do a "Save Page As" for each user agent setting on that page and put them somewhere (I know I could unblock Microsoft and do it, but I would have to go through a lot more than that as I *really* have them blocked out including empty microsoft.com DNS zones). I would like to compare the difference in source that the spit out based on the user agent. I should be able to formulate an opinion if there were some bad intentions here.

[ November 02, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

Sure.

Page received when identifying as IE 6

Page receieved when identifying as Mozilla

[voidmain]

Thank you sir!

[pkd_lives]

Actually on your second posting there appear errors in both pictures.

I have found that this effect is often reduced and/or removed by specifying Mozilla and Opera to have a minimum font size of say 12 pts. This also helps in that sites with small font fine print cannot get away with it so easily.

And it makes sites look better for some reason. I think because I prefer a font size that I can read comfortably.

[slave]

quote:Originally posted by pkd:
Actually on your second posting there appear errors in both pictures.

I have found that this effect is often reduced and/or removed by specifying Mozilla and Opera to have a minimum font size of say 12 pts. This also helps in that sites with small font fine print cannot get away with it so easily.

And it makes sites look better for some reason. I think because I prefer a font size that I can read comfortably.

My minimum font size was 12 pts when I took those screenshots.

[pkd_lives]

Fair enough, wasn't a criticsm anyway  

[slave]

What I'd like to know is if this is just one example of incompetent HTML authoring and insufficient testing on alternative browsers, or a preview of something far more sinister?

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

quote:Originally posted by Windows XP User #5225982375:
What I'd like to know is if this is just one example of incompetent HTML authoring and insufficient testing on alternative browsers, or a preview of something far more sinister?

Can it not be both?

[Ice-9]

Hmmm, call me stoopid, but I don't get it.
What could be sinister about this?
I mean , this is just typical M$ behavior as far as I'm concerned, if M$ had the control it wanted we couldn't browse the web with anything else than IE.

[voidmain]

The sinister part is when they *intentionally* make it look crappy if you come to the site with a different browser, even if that browser is perfectly capable of viewing the site exactly as IE can view it. People will think their browser is f00ked up and some will finally give in and use IE, the others will set their browser to masquerade as IE if possible. Now we show 100% of the browsers are IE for use in marketing bull shit, etc. I would consider that sinister.

[Bazoukas]

thats the fucking problem. They want to OWN the damn Internet.  
  What a bunch of fucking Nazis!

[foobar]

quote:Originally posted by bazoukas:
thats the fucking problem. They want to OWN the damn Internet.  
  What a bunch of fucking Nazis!

Roughly said ... yes  

[Ice-9]

quote:  
Originally posted by void main
The sinister part is when they *intentionally* make it look crappy if you come to the site with a different browser, even if that browser is perfectly capable of viewing the site exactly as IE can view it. People will think their browser is f00ked up and some will finally give in and use IE, the others will set their browser to masquerade as IE if possible. Now we show 100% of the browsers are IE for use in marketing bull shit, etc. I would consider that sinister.

Ok I totally agree, but this is nothing new.
I mean, how many f**ked up sites are there out there specifically designed for IE and nothing else?
And what about M$gaminig sites which you can't access unless using IE?

Don't get me wrong, I find this evil myself but I was beginning to think I missed something on that page  

[Doctor V]

All too true.  Intentionally making sites look bad on anything but their own propriatary browser is Hitlerism.  M$ = Nazi.  What if they do end up controlling the internet (the US gov. seems to want them to), then what, what will they move to next?

V