Camino User-Agent string

[Gervase Markham]

The Camino team would like to change their user agent string to add the
Firefox version number of the closest Firefox release.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=384721
They want to do this because a number of sites sniff for "Firefox".

This is somewhat controversial, because historically the Mozilla
project's line on browser sniffing has been:

1) Don't sniff at all
2) If you must sniff, use object sniffing
3) In the rare cases that doesn't work, use the Gecko version

Changing Camino would be construed as giving up on that line. So it was
requested in the bug that a discussion be started.

Some questions it might help to consider when assessing the scale of the
problem:

- Is it OK if a site warns you that your browser has not been tested,
but allows you to continue anyway?

- What about sites (e.g. banks) for which lack of support for Camino is
a deliberate policy?

- Does it matter how serious the problem is? I.e. total site blockage
vs. lack of flyout submenus on msnbc.com?

Useful documents for the discussion
-----------------------------------

Tracking bug for sites which sniff for "Firefox":
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=334967
(Note: not all bugs in this list are relevant here - e.g. some correctly
exclude Camino, like rollyo.com, bug 337056)

We have a specification for user agent strings:
http://www.mozilla.org/build/revised-user-agent-strings.html

Various Mozilla pages on the topic:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Browser_Detection_and_Cross_Browser_Support
http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Sardisson/Gecko_is_Gecko

Advocacy site on the topic:
http://geckoisgecko.org/

Gerv