Microsoft Blocks Firefox!

[Raptrex 0]

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

there are currently 43 reports

It appears Microsoft is blocking Firefox from a number of itÂs webpages. IÂve heard of this before, but now thanks to the new reporter tool, we have hard data to back it up. At the time IÂm writing this there are 39 reports in the database. I should note that we have a little over 1000 users in the system at this point, so 39 reports is rather significant.
Most of the reports are about Firefox are that they are being told:

    Sorry, we are unable to show you the page you requested. Please try again later.

In IE obviously the links work. Spoofing the user agent to that of Internet Explorer also has success. The area being reported is the downloads section of their site. Yes downloads worked. I tried several and had no problems.

Besides for illegitimately blocking Firefox, Microsoft has mislabeled their error message to encourage the user to ÂPlease try again laterÂ, as if itÂs a server issue and will likely be resolved shortly. At least on Windows Update they say right away that it requires Internet Explorer, which is an honest dialog as Firefox does not support ActiveX which is used by Auto Update.

The only issue I can see with those pages is that the gradient on the top of the Microsoft site doesnÂt render correctly. As I recall (and Asa blogged a while back) the css for it isnÂt in the specs, hence unsupported in Gecko, though I havenÂt verified that as IÂm not a css guru. The same problem appears on the Microsoft homepage, but they donÂt block that (presumably because the point of the page is to get people to buy things).

Come on Microsoft. You did move a bit towards standards. Save the browser sniffing for when itÂs necessary (such as Windows Update). Let your customers use the browser that they feel comfortable using. HereÂs a hint. WeÂre closing in on 65 million downloads in the next few hours. ThatÂs 65 million people who believe in choice. IsnÂt it time to respect computer users choices?

I hope to see Microsoft address and correct this issue.

Update: some report Firefox 1.0.4 working. Safari and OmniWeb seem to be blocked as well with that cryptic error message.

this is crazy
there just jelous cuz their products s**k b***s

Notice from BuffaloHELP:

Edited words. Watch the foul phrases. Thanks.

Edited June 20, 2005 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

[WaZ 0]

W00T!!I cant believe it!!Stupid MS,i've always hated them...FF is so much better then IE...omg...

[ashiezai 0]

wow ... that is kinda stupid for them to do that .. hoping that people will that firefox is not as competent as internet explorer ... but i think they will do something to solve the thing ... or not there will be another market monopoly lawsuit

[ashiezai 0]

After thinking for awhile ... i think that we cannot do anything about this ... microsoft owns their website ... and they can support any browser they like ... they can also not support any browser they like ... it's their rights .. So ... if you want to download things from microsoft ... just use internet explorer instead of firefox ..

[Hamtaro 0]

I'm beginning to dislike Microsoft more and more. That is just plain ridiculous of them! Most of the time, if it won't work in Firefox, I don't visit that site. I only use IE if it's the only browser on the computer. I highly doubt that they'd ever force a Firefox user to switch back to IE. Firefox is just plain better and has more features than IE will ever have.

[rvalkass 5]

Its amazing that Microsoft, who have already been accused of holding a monopoly on everything software related, needs to block out other browsers when there is no need to. If a site doesn't appear correctly in Firefox then obviously the webmaster doesn't care about the millions of potential surfers they are missing out on. Microsoft is even implementing tabbed browsing into IE, so obviously even Microsoft thinks FF is better!

[baffo 0]

After thinking for awhile ... i think that we cannot do anything about this ... microsoft owns their website ... and they can support any browser they like ... they can also not support any browser they like ... it's their rights ..

 

So ... if you want to download things from microsoft ... just use internet explorer instead of firefox ..

153116[/snapback]

That is a really stupid decision made by microsoft. With all this it looks like they want to have a monopol in everything connected with the computer software. And if that will happen, yeah they'll be full of money, but they will be also the most hated corporation in the world. But that wouldn't be the biggest problem. Users of software will be cut of of many privileges and better things that could be avaliable if there would be many software productions.

 

But let's turn to this problem. As ashiezai said, they have all rights to made his website avaliable just for those with Internet Explorer, but they are stupid, because with this they are losing potential clients.

 

Maybe one day they'll see that they are doing the wrong thing

[T100 0]

It?s an open secret that Microsoft aims to make the users of other better browsers inconvenient. Say, their website for Windows update is accessible by the stupid Internet Explorer only. When you enter hotmail and blank out the user-agent, the system would pop up a window asking you to get their stupid browser. More outrageously, Microsoft often uses the security-nightmare, ActiveX in their webpage and so alternative browsers often have problem accessing them. I think the most foolish thing is that some web developers only have Internet Explorer in mind. Say, the online teaching software of my university, WebCT only accepts Internet Explorer. This is outrageous. Microsoft stole many technologies form others. The JavaScript and Jscript, the Java and the dot Net platform. In my opinion, the only thing that Microsoft is still not able to copy is Macromedia?s Flash. The Flash player has become such a success that Microsoft is still not able to come up with something equivalent. If Firefox is to survive and re-colonize the market, perhaps some sites should make themselves Firefox only.

[Raptrex 0]

whats next? will they make a better outlook express?will this teach them that open source is better?can office compete with openoffice? i dont knowi bet if microsoft cant figure out these problems, they will just buy all the programmers in the world lol

[mama_soap 0]

Oh dear... well, doesn't this sort of go to show in a more obvious way than ever that MS is insecure about the popularity of IE? I mean, I wouldn't know too much about the browser buissnesses, but they must have their strategies for doing what they do. I also think the move is stupid, but that does not prevent them from having their reasons, eh? But I still don't get the point, won't people be more likely to switch if/when they come to know of a trick like this? Won't this do more harm than good for MS in general? *phew* Yet again, yay for open source s/w

[[i]_R_Crazy_Idiot 0]

Saying FF is better than IE and IE suxors is stupid. I use firefox, and I have it crash on me. As the mainstream crackers start noticing more and more using firefox they will begin to target it more, and security breaches will be found.

[Raptrex 0]

now there are 53i think i read somewhere you cant update windows with firefoxi forgot where i read this at tho

[dontmaimyourself 0]

Mozilla Corporation must have threatened them because I tried a few (about 7) of those in Firefox 1.0.4, and all but one worked fine, the one that did not work and displayed the 'Please try later' message, also displayed that message in IE, so I don't know whats going on, but apart from that I do still hate Microsoft for their crime against the internet.

[rwk.Dragons 0]

Wow, thats interesting, never saw or heard of something like this. I have Xp pro, Ie and firefox, no problems here.

[Tyssen 0]

Saying FF is better than IE and IE suxors is stupid. I use firefox, and I have it crash on me. As the mainstream crackers start noticing more and more using firefox they will begin to target it more, and security breaches will be found.

I've never had Firefox crash on me. As for the hackers: experience has shown that FF can release updates within days of security flaws being exposed. How long do you reckon it takes MS to get around to that?
Firefox isn't new to this situation though: the same has been happening to Opera for a while now.