https://carelink.minimed.com/patient/entry.jsp?bhcp=1 Works in Opera with the user agent set to mask as IE, doesn't work in Firefox regardless of the UA setting.
Doesn't work on a Mac in any browser. Which means it probably uses Windows-based program hooks that are only available in IE. I suspect that even if it loads in Opera, it isn't fully functional.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/gamechannel Works in Opera with the UA set to identify as Opera or Firefox. This is obviously not an IE only site, it's just listed as such because it won't work in Firefox. It also works with Chrome, which indicates that Firefox needs fixing, not the site. I wish Firefox zealots would get their facts straight before blaming sites.
This site works fine for me in Firefox. You're the one who needs to get your facts straight.
https://esp.rci.rogers.com/EAMWeb/TCSP/ENU/Common/servlet/login.xml?ReturnUrl=%2fEAMWeb%2fTCSP%2fENU%2fAPI%2fservlet%2fAdminGetUserProfile.ewfm - Same again, works perfectly in IE, Chrome and in Opera (not quite perfect but still works) but not at all in Firefox.
This page shouldn't work in any browser. The fact that it does in most of them only proves how many browsers are willing to work around shitty programming and how many are not. I don't fault Firefox for not loading this page at all.
http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/DWOnlineMap/MainInterface.aspx Works in Opera and IE but not in Firefox or Chrome. I'll let the zealot off on this one, it does say it requires IE >6 on non-compatible browsers but it doesn't block non-IE browsers, it works under Opera with the UA set to Opera.
This site baffles me. I've pored over their code, including all their linked JavaScripts, and can't find the section of code that does the browser check. In fact, if you look at the file javascripts/actions.js, you'll see that there is code that checks if the browser is IE5 or Navigator 4, and then programs the appropriate JavaScript calls. There's actually client-side code in there designed to facilitate old and/or non-IE browsers! But they must do some sort of server-side browser check somewhere.
http://www.topjob.com.br/ Opera, Chrome and IE not Firefox
Works just as well in Firefox and Safari as it does in Opera. Hard to tell, though, since I don't speak Portuguese very well.
https://pcws.wal-mart.com/cws/seeker.html Opera, Chrome and IE not Firefox
Should not work in any browser. Have you looked at the source? Fucker has embedded tables down to 5 layers:
<TABLE><TABLE><TABLE><TABLE><TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE>
And that's just the beginning. That's irresponsible coding, and I'm sorta glad Firefox doesn't allow it.
I think in most of the examples you've cited here (that really don't work in Firefox), the coder is at fault, for not running his site properly. Choosing to use coding hooks that only work on Windows is ridiculous. Automatically blocking certain browsers from the server side is just plain mean, especially if your coders are facilitating them from the client side. Illegal XML and HTML code shouldn't be coddled by a browser, it should be burned and discarded by a browser. I see Opera's behavior in this arena as kowtowing to the clusterfuck that Microsoft and IE have made of web standards.
Think about the two of the most popular websites on the internet - Google.com and Amazon.com. Both work with all modern browsers on all platforms. No messages, no warnings. As a matter of fact, those sites probably don't even use workarounds any more - they've streamlined the processes so well that simple code is able to do complex things. This is how the internet can and should work.