Firefox does not send the correct user agent under Apple Silicon (AARM)
Categories
(Core :: Widget: Cocoa, defect)
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(Reporter: mozilla, Unassigned)
Details
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(2 files)
e.g. on this very site.png
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
Steps to reproduce:
Firefox sends the wrong user agent to websites under Apple Silicon. What's up with that?
Actual results:
It identifies itself as Mac OS X 10.15 Intel (an OS from a different CPU architecture some 5 years ago).
Expected results:
Firefox should identify itself as macOS (not Mac OS X) 14.2 (not 10.15) Apple Silicon or AARM (not Intel). Websites offer the wrong software distribution to Firefox users, namely LibreOffice.org which offers the Intel binary instead of the Apple Silicon one. Also, ironically, by submitting this bug on Bugzilla, it asks me to check "Include your browser's user agent string in the bug description. This can be helpful to developers working on your issue. " which will inevitably send you guys the wrong user agent lol?
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Comment 2•8 months ago
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The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Widget: Cocoa' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.
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Comment 3•8 months ago
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The primary factor for deciding the user agent string is compatibility with existing websites
Sending Intel + 10.15 is consistent with what other browsers do on Apple Silicon machines, too.
See bug 1655285 for the decision to use Intel and bug 1679929 for the decision to cap the version at 10.15. And see bug 1680516 for an example of a broken website before we switched the user agent to Intel.
It is true that this makes it harder for websites to offer the right download by default. For Apple Silicon specifically, offering a universal build would be an option to reduce user confusion.
I've filed bug 1884586 on the bugzilla-specific issue.
This renders the user agent completely useless. Also, I don't understand what you mean by "offering a universal build would be an option to reduce user confusion."
As an user, I'm suffering from this Firefox defect. I don't work for LibreOffice or any of those websites that offer platform dependant app downloads so I'm stuck with a browser that makes the websites I visit not offer the appropriate content for my computer. Also, FYI, Apple Silicon (AARM) is not even remotely close to being compatible with Intel. AARM is a reduced instruction set CPU while Intel is a complex one. For example, VirtualBox exists for Intel Macs while it does not for Apple Silicon ones even if Apple Silicon has been around for more than 3 years.
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