Public bug reported: Ubuntu's Chromium build uses a custom user agent in many ways. It included "Ubuntu" in the .deb versions, and now it includes "snap" in the snap versions. Also, it adds a "Chromium/<version>" field. This breaks many websites that do aggressive user agent matching, such as Netflix and Microsoft Teams.
(Yes, unfortunately I have to use the latter every now and then, and I do not want to install the proprietary blob app for it.) Chromium snap's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129 Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" While normal Chrome's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" Pretty much every incompatibility-related issue is solved by spoofing the user agent and removing the "snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129" part, simply claiming to be normal Chrome. There is not really any point in differentiating between Chromium and Chrome, but it breaks many websites, and it's also a nasty feature for browser fingerprinting. Identifying as Chromium will only annoy users and have them install the proprietary Chrome browser instead, so "Netflix works" and "they can join their meeting". In order to work around such issues, Vivaldi has already decided to just use Chrome's user agent, because otherwise things broke for no obvious reasons: https://vivaldi.com/blog/user-agent-changes/ Moreover, Google has decided to semi-deprecate user agents altogether in upcoming Chrome releases: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-to-phase-out-user-agent-strings-in-chrome/ https://9to5google.com/2020/01/14/google-deprecate-chrome-user-agent-string-privacy/ So with these upcoming changes in Chrome, can Chromium in Ubuntu please follow suit, and no longer differentiate from whatever string Google will use for Chrome? $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Release: 20.04 $ snap info chromium name: chromium summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome publisher: Canonical* store-url: https://snapcraft.io/chromium contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap license: unset description: | An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. commands: - chromium.chromedriver - chromium snap-id: XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R tracking: latest/stable refresh-date: 6 days ago, at 10:41 CEST channels: latest/stable: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-29 (1135) 161MB - latest/candidate: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-28 (1135) 161MB - latest/beta: 83.0.4103.23 2020-04-25 (1125) 163MB - latest/edge: 84.0.4128.3 2020-04-29 (1136) 164MB - installed: 81.0.4044.129 (1135) 161MB - ** Affects: chromium-browser (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: compatibility user-agent ** Description changed: Ubuntu's Chromium build uses a custom user agent in many ways. It included "Ubuntu" in the .deb versions, and now it includes "snap" in the snap versions. Also, it adds a "Chromium/<version>" field. This breaks many websites that do agressive user agent matching, such as Netflix and Microsoft Teams. (Yes, unfortunately I have to use the latter every now and then, and I do not want to install the proprietary blob app for it.) Chromium snap's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129 Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" While normal Chrome's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" - - Pretty much every user agent-related issue is solved by spoofing the user agent and removing the "snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129" part, simply claiming to be normal Chrome. There is not really any point in differentiating between Chromium and Chrome, but it breaks many websites, and it's also a nasty feature for browser fingerprinting. + Pretty much every incompatibility-related issue is solved by spoofing + the user agent and removing the "snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129" part, + simply claiming to be normal Chrome. There is not really any point in + differentiating between Chromium and Chrome, but it breaks many + websites, and it's also a nasty feature for browser fingerprinting. Identifying as Chromium will only annoy users and have them install the proprietary Chrome browser instead, so "Netflix works" and "they can join their meeting". - - In order to work around such issues, Vivaldi has already decided to just use Chrome's user agent, because otherwise things broke for no obvious reasons: + In order to work around such issues, Vivaldi has already decided to just + use Chrome's user agent, because otherwise things broke for no obvious + reasons: https://vivaldi.com/blog/user-agent-changes/ Moreover, Chrome has decided to semi-deprecate user agents altogether in upcoming releases: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-to-phase-out-user-agent-strings-in-chrome/ https://9to5google.com/2020/01/14/google-deprecate-chrome-user-agent-string-privacy/ So with these upcoming changes in Chrome, can Chromium in Ubuntu please follow suit, and no longer differentiate from whatever string Google will use for Chrome? - $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Release: 20.04 $ snap info chromium name: chromium summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome publisher: Canonical* store-url: https://snapcraft.io/chromium contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap license: unset description: | - An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all - Internet users to experience the web. + An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all + Internet users to experience the web. commands: - - chromium.chromedriver - - chromium + - chromium.chromedriver + - chromium snap-id: XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R tracking: latest/stable refresh-date: 6 days ago, at 10:41 CEST channels: - latest/stable: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-29 (1135) 161MB - - latest/candidate: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-28 (1135) 161MB - - latest/beta: 83.0.4103.23 2020-04-25 (1125) 163MB - - latest/edge: 84.0.4128.3 2020-04-29 (1136) 164MB - + latest/stable: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-29 (1135) 161MB - + latest/candidate: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-28 (1135) 161MB - + latest/beta: 83.0.4103.23 2020-04-25 (1125) 163MB - + latest/edge: 84.0.4128.3 2020-04-29 (1136) 164MB - installed: 81.0.4044.129 (1135) 161MB - ** Description changed: Ubuntu's Chromium build uses a custom user agent in many ways. It included "Ubuntu" in the .deb versions, and now it includes "snap" in the snap versions. Also, it adds a "Chromium/<version>" field. This breaks many websites that do agressive user agent matching, such as Netflix and Microsoft Teams. (Yes, unfortunately I have to use the latter every now and then, and I do not want to install the proprietary blob app for it.) Chromium snap's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129 Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" While normal Chrome's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" Pretty much every incompatibility-related issue is solved by spoofing the user agent and removing the "snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129" part, simply claiming to be normal Chrome. There is not really any point in differentiating between Chromium and Chrome, but it breaks many websites, and it's also a nasty feature for browser fingerprinting. Identifying as Chromium will only annoy users and have them install the proprietary Chrome browser instead, so "Netflix works" and "they can join their meeting". In order to work around such issues, Vivaldi has already decided to just use Chrome's user agent, because otherwise things broke for no obvious reasons: https://vivaldi.com/blog/user-agent-changes/ - Moreover, Chrome has decided to semi-deprecate user agents altogether in - upcoming releases: + Moreover, Google has decided to semi-deprecate user agents altogether in + upcoming Chrome releases: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-to-phase-out-user-agent-strings-in-chrome/ https://9to5google.com/2020/01/14/google-deprecate-chrome-user-agent-string-privacy/ So with these upcoming changes in Chrome, can Chromium in Ubuntu please follow suit, and no longer differentiate from whatever string Google will use for Chrome? $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Release: 20.04 $ snap info chromium name: chromium summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome publisher: Canonical* store-url: https://snapcraft.io/chromium contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap license: unset description: | An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. commands: - chromium.chromedriver - chromium snap-id: XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R tracking: latest/stable refresh-date: 6 days ago, at 10:41 CEST channels: latest/stable: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-29 (1135) 161MB - latest/candidate: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-28 (1135) 161MB - latest/beta: 83.0.4103.23 2020-04-25 (1125) 163MB - latest/edge: 84.0.4128.3 2020-04-29 (1136) 164MB - installed: 81.0.4044.129 (1135) 161MB - ** Description changed: Ubuntu's Chromium build uses a custom user agent in many ways. It included "Ubuntu" in the .deb versions, and now it includes "snap" in the snap versions. Also, it adds a "Chromium/<version>" field. This - breaks many websites that do agressive user agent matching, such as + breaks many websites that do aggressive user agent matching, such as Netflix and Microsoft Teams. (Yes, unfortunately I have to use the latter every now and then, and I do not want to install the proprietary blob app for it.) Chromium snap's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129 Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" While normal Chrome's current user agent is "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/81.0.4044.129 Safari/537.36" Pretty much every incompatibility-related issue is solved by spoofing the user agent and removing the "snap Chromium/81.0.4044.129" part, simply claiming to be normal Chrome. There is not really any point in differentiating between Chromium and Chrome, but it breaks many websites, and it's also a nasty feature for browser fingerprinting. Identifying as Chromium will only annoy users and have them install the proprietary Chrome browser instead, so "Netflix works" and "they can join their meeting". In order to work around such issues, Vivaldi has already decided to just use Chrome's user agent, because otherwise things broke for no obvious reasons: https://vivaldi.com/blog/user-agent-changes/ Moreover, Google has decided to semi-deprecate user agents altogether in upcoming Chrome releases: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-to-phase-out-user-agent-strings-in-chrome/ https://9to5google.com/2020/01/14/google-deprecate-chrome-user-agent-string-privacy/ So with these upcoming changes in Chrome, can Chromium in Ubuntu please follow suit, and no longer differentiate from whatever string Google will use for Chrome? $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Release: 20.04 $ snap info chromium name: chromium summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome publisher: Canonical* store-url: https://snapcraft.io/chromium contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap license: unset description: | An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. commands: - chromium.chromedriver - chromium snap-id: XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R tracking: latest/stable refresh-date: 6 days ago, at 10:41 CEST channels: latest/stable: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-29 (1135) 161MB - latest/candidate: 81.0.4044.129 2020-04-28 (1135) 161MB - latest/beta: 83.0.4103.23 2020-04-25 (1125) 163MB - latest/edge: 84.0.4128.3 2020-04-29 (1136) 164MB - installed: 81.0.4044.129 (1135) 161MB - -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1877073 Title: Stop using custom user agent, work towards generic one To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1877073/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
