User Agent Switcher for SeaMonkey

sage and infectiia have complained that SeaMonkey does not work on the NatWest Bank website.

I have posted a query about this here:
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=375342#375342

If the 'User Agent Switcher' SM addon fixes it, I'll make it into a PET package and build the next Quirky with it.

UPDATE:
I looked at www.nwolb.com (NatWest online banking) and it told me I had the wrong browser. I then installed User Agent Swicher, restarted SM, chose "Internet Explorer 7" (see Tools menu), then tried that site -- this time success. Couldn't login of course.

Comment: What a crappy bank, blocking SM. If I had an account there, I would vote with my money, go elsewhere and let them know why.

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Comments

Just a nudge from an old user
Username: neon31
Hello sir... I would just like to let you know that you've done one great job for everyone. I discovered Puppy 3yrs ago back in college in hopes of making my RAM challenged computer to work fine, and it did. It was nice to have 2.13 back then: sure it was a shock from a MS WIN refugee but it was nice. I sure know how to program in C, but consider me as having no programming skills outside of windows. I was a plain user, but one heck of a tester albeit I don't submit them to anyone: it's just for my observations :happy: And to me, Puppy rocks... On the fly, I didn't had to install flash (one up against Ubuntu!), rmvb files playable with a dotpup, almost all video formats are supported. Even now Ubuntu 9.04 didn't have that without upgrading something. I just learned now that you plan to retire from puppy, and for me it's just a sad thing. To be honest with, as an IT student Puppy gave me the spark to learn and love open source as it is. Not Apache, not MySQL, but Puppy! Who wouldn't want to have a non-expensive, cheap computer working? How many financially deprived people would be given the chance to have the same opportunities with higher class people with a computer at home, like online education? You even ask yourself why bother, when as I can see here you only had Christmas for rest then came back working for Puppy. And there has been posts from you on a daily basis! Well, your vision has come true: a powerful OS for small computers to run. Puppy would never have existed without you. And somewhere along the way, I know you deserve credit on this work. Thanks man.

User Agent Switcher PET
Username: BarryK
"Ok, I have made it into a PET package. Not yet uploaded. Note, I plan the next Quirky build to have these addons for SM: Adblock Fullerscreen (a kind of presentation thingy) User Agent Switcher Zombiekeys (enter unusual characters with a normal keyboard) Right, that's enough Puppy stuff for today. Back into holiday mode -- actually, gonna do some painting.

User Agent Switcher found in Turbopup (Xtreme)
Username: panzerpuppy
"Turbopup (Xtreme) is the only derivative of Puppy that ships with User Agent Switcher out of the box. Other essential plugins such as NoScript,Duplicate Tab and AdBlock are also part of this amazing puplet.

NatWest Puppy Pt. I
Username: Sage
"Got the best interest rates on my ISA with Natwest, complete with absolute security backed by UK government. No contest. Recommended by all the savvy money websites, notably Martin Lewis'. Tried a bunch of Puppies, and where available, SM add-ons. The only alias I was unwilling to try was IE7 (naked prejudice in this case)! SM is truly a pile of pants. Slow and bloated with an appalling interface and quirky behaviour. Ironically, it was Opera that first introduced alternative browser emulations whilst the trades were being conned by the Redmond crooks to reject rendering by it. Now that Opera has become mainstream, I rarely have to use the emulation tool.

NatWest Puppy Pt. II
Username: Sage
"It somewhat defeats the objective of using a liveCD of a compact distro intended to give a complete approach to life, the universe and everything outa-da-box and then have to juggle with the add-ons, emulations, fixes and patches. Firefox and Opera generally do everything needed at first ask. Neither is as small as might be desired, but Opera has a distinct edge in speed. [I am fed up of ignorami on Puppy sites claiming that I said that Opera was a lot smaller than Firefox - I never did say that.] There are other significant faults in SM. One that I encountered early on in Puppies was it would not resolve the setup screen on a couple of my modem-routers. At that time, I discovered that the little browser used to display the 'Help' page could access the configuration monitor page (as well as Dillo !). Apart from my personal dislike of the Mozilla SM offering, time and time again it has produced absolute show-stoppers, making Puppies a mere interesting hobby sideline for me and my colleagues. It has been rather frustrating getting a rational hearing in the case of Puppy & SM. Just about as difficult as trying wean otherwise intelligent folk away from the WIntel abuse of technology. Like an old and comfortable pair of slippers, human nature tends to aver towards the [i]status quo[/i]. What is even more galling is that Puppy derivatives using Opera, [i]inter alia[/i], have already proved so demonstrably superior Puppy performance. MeanPup and derivatives by gray are highlights on how to do things for the bog standard user like me.

SM is good
Username: BarryK
"Yes sage, you keep going on and on. But, my experience is just about the opposite. SM handles everything I throw at it, online banking, video sites, etc., etc. A few areas of convenience in the user interface are covered by addons, and it has been demonstrated that SM can be featured-up pretty similarly to Firefox. Opera on the other hand ...I don't like it at all. I reckon SM is an excellent choice for the mainline Puppy, but then, Puppy is all about choice, which is why I created Unleashed and then Woof, as well as the CD remaster script, so that there can be puplets to cater for all tastes. Note though, as I am no longer in charge of the mainstream Puppy releases (see technosaurus for 4.4, gposil for Dpup, kirk for 64-bit Tpup), those guys might have other ideas as to what should be the mainline browser. Regarding my humble Quirky, for now SM remains as the browser of choice ...but I may surprise everyone, who knows? (Quirky is all about surprises).

panzerpuppy
Username: SeaMonkey 1.1.x is still better than Opera (for now)
"@Sage: SeaMonkey 1.1.x is still smaller, faster (in Adobe Flash performance) and safer (with NoScript) than Opera 10.10. SeaMonkey also doesn't need additional Qt dependencies. And if you switch to Opera,you'll lose the HTML composer. Even the latest version of Turbopup Xtreme doesn't come with Opera (for a good reason). The author of this puplet is probably waiting for the upcoming version of Opera (10.50) - the browser that will change the future of Linux browsing forever :) Opera 10.50 for Linux is going to be *AMAZING*

re. pp comments
Username: Sage
""still smaller, faster" There you go again - selective misquotations. Who said Opera was smaller? Not me. You are quite simply wrong about speed - Opera is faster: always. Opera is also far more comprehensive, is the browser of choice amongst Puppy users AND FINALLY: John Murga's MeanPup showed what could be done in a 50Mb .iso, complete with Opera. But then, if developers want to bloat their offerings with it, I've no personal objections to Firefox - even 'dozey users are waking up to reality and FF (briefly) took the lead over IE 10.50, or whatever, last week according to TheRegister.

Opera :)
Username: panzerpuppy
""Opera is faster: always" Opera *is* faster for browsing normal pages, but it yields to SM on Flash-heavy pages and Flash video (streaming) sites. Opera 10.1 is a very nice browser,but I'm waiting for this: ;) Opera 10.50 for Linux - smaller, faster and better -------------------------------------------------- The Linux version will have some big changes under the hood: it will no longer be necessary to have Qt installed (woo-hoo!) This makes Opera for Unix much faster, smaller and easier to install. Opera will still integrate well with your desktop environment by supporting KDE/GTK skinning and show open/save dialogs that match your desktop (great!) An alpha build of 10.50 for Linux will be made available soon.

An alpha build of 10.50 for Linux will be made available soon.
Username: Sage
"Yes - I've read the blurb, too. But the big question will be adoption. Many developers have already expended vast effort on alternatives and, leaving aside the natural prejudices we all battle with daily, might be reluctant to switch. Should leave those that have maintained a more flexible/variable approach, like John & gray for example, in a very strong position. Notwithstanding, wouldn't bet that tx won't come out with an all new solution including O10.50 within days (hours?!).

No need for browser war
Username: Terryphi
"There is really no reason for browser wars in Puppyland. I speak as a fervent Opera supporter since its early days. Thanks to Woof it is simple to download the Opera .deb and install it. Firefox fans can use any old Firefox pet and then auto-update to the latest version - for ever. Quirky (like every other distro) contains many programs that most of us never use. For me, Seamonkey is one of them but it is no problem because I see Quirky as a base on which to build what I need and enjoy using.

Opera is good but..
Username: Andr
é R."@Barry: You should probably try to use Firefox 2.0 UA string instead, that is much closer in terms of gecko version and features. If there is js code that uses UA string then it will most likely fail when you select IE, no matter which version you choose. On Opera vs SeaMonkey: I think this conversation is a bit old, and has come up several times in puppy land. 1. Opera is closed source, nothing wrong with that, but not something you'd normally wouldn't bundled with a open source OS. 2. The version of SeaMonkey is old and should at least be updated to 2.0.1 which is closer to how Firfox 3.5 works and would therefor probably work better on more sites. A bonus is that more FireFox extensions work on it. 3. Instead of arguing for Opera, what about arguing for WebKit. It is also small and very fast. It has a larger user base then Opera if you combine Google Chrome and Safari numbers, and it has more traction in the websphere now then any of the other browsers(and that will probably accelerate when Chrome gets stable extensions support.)

Opera is good but..(2)
Username: Andr
é R."#1 "not something you'd normally wouldn't bundled with a open source OS" -> "not something you'd normally would bundled with an open source OS""27 Dec 2009, 21:55"01296'webKit and Google Chrome"Terryphi"WebKit and Google Chrome are hyped in the tech media but my website stats suggest that use is minimal. My conclusion is that on websites with an older user profile IE is dominant but on websites with a younger user profile Firefox is dominant. Opera has a small user base everywhere but at least in Europe is the browser of choice of the most tech savvy. But as I said in an earlier post Quirky makes it easy for everyone to use what they like. Woof has made it largely irrelevant for regular users which particular programs Puppy/Quirky include by default. It could be argued that Puppy/Quirky need the best set of programs to attract new users but in reality even newbies are likely to be people who will want to alter it to satisfy their particular needs. The challenge is to find the best ways of facilitating this.

Quirky Opera
Username: happypuppy
"["Opera is a closed source browser. Not something you would normally bundle with an open source OS"] Remember, this is *Quirky* Linux, not your standard run-of-the-mill Puppy - that means anything is possible :D

A better browser for Puppy
Username: panzerpuppy
"If you want a better browser for Puppy, post all your quesions and suggestions here in the Opera 10.5 for Linux blog: http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/unix-10-50-evenes-work-in-progress ;)

Opera 10.50
Username: BarryK
"Very interesting, I posted a comment: http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/unix-10-50-evenes-work-in-progress?cid=14249491&startidx=50#comment14249491 I wonder how far away it is from being a real product?

"SM as good as FF"
Username: BarryK
" http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=49640

Seamonkey Suite
Username: dtfla
"Would like to add one vote to continue the Seamonkey Suite in Puppy. It can be argued and detailed endlessly that Seamonkey lacks this and that, but what it does offer is a complete suite. Currently, the most tools per Mbyte.

10.50 final
Username: Andr
é R."[i]I wonder how far away it is from being a real product?[/i] Since it is currently a pre-alpha, I would guess 9-12 months based on how long time Opera spent on getting 9.5 and 10.0 out the door..

Opera 10.50 pre-alpha
Username: Sage
"According to The Register, it was first announced Feb2009 when it had already been under development for several months. Like the 10.0alpha, even the earliest Opera stuff tends to be better than some OS-7 'gold'. Could be not too long to wait. Probably, if BK writes a nice letter to their management declaring his interest, they might be willing to offer him more definitive guidance about timescales?

the good news opera10.10 portable
Username: x
"i can access my ONE install of portable opera 10.10 on my SDcard at sdb1 by just clicking on the opera from all and each of quirky2, dpupbeta5, and upup452. so you can put any trash browser in puppy main iso and i dont care ha ha ha. now the bad news can't get it to link from the desktop or to configure the mime types to open .mht files, however for someone who knows how i am sure that is a piece of cake. discussion here http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=456712014&t=39444 download opera portable here http://www.teradepot.com/6yqcoyf4as8c/Opera-10.10-portable-customized.tar.gz.html now how about a portable gimp so i wont have to use that horrible mpaint? while were there why not all portable apps and only main programs in the main.iso that should solve a few wars:)

Opera 10.5 PRE-ALPHA for Linux is out :)
Username: panzerpuppy
"The first internal (pre-alpha) build of Opera for Linux has been released. It's buggy, but very impressive :) Beware of skin issues, resizing issues, sticky scrollbars and slow scrolling speed (to be fixed very soon) This baby comes with HTML5 <VIDEO> and <AUDIO> support. Get it from here: http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/happy-new-year#comments

Opera,SM,FF
Username: ttuuxxx
"Opera- The thing about Opera That I hate with a passion is the tab locations overtop the Gui Buttons, I did manage to hack Opera's config last year and moved the tabs below so it looked and felt like a regular browser. But it should be a option in the menu. SM- Generally SM is the best browser for puppy, Its even better with GUI icons theme updates that I made up 4.2, a few reviews of 4.2 really like the the puppy throbber I made for 4.2, shame it wasn't in for 4.3. monkey menus is also a bonus to give Seamonkey the FF feel and look. FF- By far this is my browser of choice, it autoupdates, has tons and tons of plugins themes that all the other browsers combined wouldn't have 1/30 of the selection. Plus I've more than proven its a fine replacement for the SM suite if you include, Simple Mail, Xinha, Flash Block Like this 15MB pet package :) http://puppylinux.ca/tpp/ttuuxxx/dpup/Firefox-3.5.5-Flash10-SimpeMail-wysiwyg.pet It has the following -latest Flash 10 -Xinha is here wysiwyg editor -Simple Mail -Firefox 3.5.5 all you need to run it is dbus and dbusglib ttuuxxx

symliking problem
Username: aarf
"there seems to be a problem with symlinking that has been further uncovered by using portable opera in dpup484. the problem is occuring both with symlinking within the puppy structure in the pupsave as well as to symlinking to outside of the pupsave. anyone with upto date current knowledge in the symilnking area want to take a look? page 3 of http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=456712014&t=39444 also in dpup484 thread

symliking problem
Username: aarf
"there seems to be a problem with symlinking that has been further uncovered by using portable opera in dpup484. the problem is occuring both with symlinking within the puppy structure in the pupsave as well as to symlinking to outside of the pupsave. anyone with upto date current knowledge in the symilnking area want to take a look? page 3 of http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=456712014&t=39444 also in dpup484 thread

symlinking
Username: BarryK
"I read through that forum thread, and I don't see any problem with symlinking. There may be problems with application package setup but that's an issue for the vendor of the package.

Tags: puppy