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A fair number of websites will still block perfectly working features based on what OS you use. Some examples I've seen using the latest Firefox on *BSD: Face

A fair number of websites will still block perfectly working features based on what OS you use. Some examples I've seen using the latest Firefox on *BSD: Facebook won't let you publish or edit a Note (not a normal post, the builtin Notes app). I think earlier they wouldn't play videos but they might have fixed that. Chase Bank won't let you log in. Gives you a mobile-looking UI which tells you to upgrade to the latest Chrome or Firefox. In these cases if you lie and say you're using Linux or Windows it works flawlessly.

ksec 7y ago
I am guessing Banks only test their site against popular OS and Browser for security reasons.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  I think you mean their broken idea of what a security reason is. Banks are generally really bad at actual web and mobile security.
- asveikau 7y ago
  Ok then, don't tell all the other financial institutions I use FreeBSD then, they are all letting me through without issue. It sounds a lot like you are making excuses for them and bad/lazy/poorly thought out code.
- whoisthemachine 7y ago
  It's usually just that the company doesn't want to have to deal with potential support calls that come in about their website not working on x os in x browser, so they do the bare minimum to disable it - then if a user complains about it not working, they can plausibly deny supporting the os/browser configuration.
  - asveikau 7y ago
    This takes more effort than letting it just work. People running an OS more obscure than Linux are not the type that are going to call asking for support. We are used to supporting ourselves. Did I mention it's the same code as a working configuration? I think it's more likely somebody did not know how to properly parse user-agent and they blocked more than they intended to.
eredengrin 7y ago
In addition to these, I've also noticed outlook365 (use it for accessing work email) gives a very minimal interface to the point of being nearly unusable with a FreeBSD user agent. Switch to a more popular one and I get full functionality.

ksec 7y ago

I am guessing Banks only test their site against popular OS and Browser for security reasons.

Dylan16807 7y ago
I think you mean their broken idea of what a security reason is. Banks are generally really bad at actual web and mobile security.
asveikau 7y ago
Ok then, don't tell all the other financial institutions I use FreeBSD then, they are all letting me through without issue. It sounds a lot like you are making excuses for them and bad/lazy/poorly thought out code.
whoisthemachine 7y ago
It's usually just that the company doesn't want to have to deal with potential support calls that come in about their website not working on x os in x browser, so they do the bare minimum to disable it - then if a user complains about it not working, they can plausibly deny supporting the os/browser configuration.
- asveikau 7y ago
  This takes more effort than letting it just work. People running an OS more obscure than Linux are not the type that are going to call asking for support. We are used to supporting ourselves. Did I mention it's the same code as a working configuration? I think it's more likely somebody did not know how to properly parse user-agent and they blocked more than they intended to.

eredengrin 7y ago

In addition to these, I've also noticed outlook365 (use it for accessing work email) gives a very minimal interface to the point of being nearly unusable with a FreeBSD user agent. Switch to a more popular one and I get full functionality.