h.u.c should check HTTP USER-AGENT

[Dan McGarry]

Duncan Lithgow wrote:
> 
> The next thing that occurs to me is that we should be able to use the
> HTTP USER-AGENT string. I went to check mine at 
> http://web-sniffer.net/ where it says mine was as follows:
> 
> Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.0.5) Gecko/20060727
> Ubuntu/dapper-security Firefox/1.5.0.5 Web-Sniffer/1.0.24

Mine currently identifies my browser as LavaMonkey 3.14159. 8^)

The USER-AGENT string (along with all HTTP headers) can trivially be 
over-ridden, changed or hidden by anyone who has a mind to do so.

That said, most people don't touch it.

> This means that at the very least we can check if a visitor to the help
> pages is using Ubuntu, and which version.

A word of caution. Be careful not to:

a) Make functionality rely on this data (e.g. automatic redirects);
b) Match specific strings too closely (e.g. major or minor OS version).

These approaches are usually not forward-compatible and often lock out a 
significant minority of website visitors, including some geeks, the 
visually-impaired, and people seeking anonymity - all of whom, I submit, 
are definitely not 'fringe' customers for Ubuntu. 8^)

Regards,

-- 
Dan McGarry	it.psl at fsp.org.vu

IT Consultant
Community Communications Project