浏览器演化中用户代理字符串的 “无间道”

斐夷所非

已于 2024-07-09 00:23:24 修改

阅读量872

点赞数 18

分类专栏： browser 文章标签：浏览器

于 2024-07-05 23:04:26 首次发布

本文链接：https://blog.csdn.net/u013669912/article/details/140219798

版权

browser 专栏收录该内容

8 篇文章 0 订阅

订阅专栏

注：机翻，已初校。

从《浏览器 30 年：简史》到《浏览器用户代理字符串的 “无间道”》读完，为什么无论哪种浏览器用户代理字符串都以 Mozilla 开头，就豁然开朗了。

30 Years of Browsers: A Quick History 浏览器 30 年：简史

Thirty years ago, Tim Berners-Lee released the WorldWideWeb browser, unleashing the power of the internet and creating a race among the day’s tech giants to dominate how people accessed the web.

By Chandra Steele

February 26, 2021

三十年前，蒂姆·伯纳斯-李（Tim Berners-Lee）发布了万维网浏览器，释放了互联网的力量，并在当时的科技巨头之间引发了一场竞赛，以主导人们访问网络的方式。

You’re likely reading this story on a browser. You might take how you access the web for granted, or you might get into passionate Safari vs. Chrome arguments. Either way, the interface has now been with us for 30 years, and its life has not been without controversy.
你可能正在使用浏览器阅读这篇文章。你可能认为访问网络的方式理所当然，或者你可能会参与激烈的 Safari vs. Chrome 的辩论。无论如何，这个界面现在已经与我们共存了 30 年，它的生命历程并非没有争议。

There are five widely used browsers right now (Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera) and they emerged from a long, litigious war. But in the beginning, there was only one. It was created by Tim Berners-Lee, who envisioned a public way to access the internet, which he also happened to have had a tremendous part in building.
目前有五种广泛使用的浏览器（Google Chrome，Apple的Safari，Microsoft Edge，Mozilla Firefox和Opera），它们来自一场漫长的诉讼战争。但一开始，只有一个。它是由 Tim Berners-Lee 创建的，他设想了一种公共访问互联网的方式，而他也恰好在构建互联网方面发挥了重要作用。

A NeXT Computer and a Vision

When the internet was confined to a small group of people, Berners-Lee, who was working at CERN, sat down at a NeXT computer, wrote up a browser, and called it WorldWideWeb. To not confuse it with the information it was the gateway to, it was later renamed Nexus.
当互联网仅限于一小群人时，工作在 CERN 的 Tim Berners-Lee 坐在一台 NeXT 计算机前，编写了一个浏览器，并将其命名为 WorldWideWeb。为了不与它所连接的信息混淆，后来将其重新命名为 Nexus。

When it was time for a browser to make its public debut, Nexus posed a problem: it could only be used on NeXT computers. So the browser was rewritten by several of Berners-Lee’s CERN colleagues, with most of the input coming from intern Nicola Pellow, to work on a broader array of computers. The browser came to be known as a Line Mode Browser because of the line-by-line text input method it used. It was first available across CERN and then was introduced on the alt.hypertext Usenet newsgroup.
当浏览器首次公开亮相时，Nexus 出现了一个问题：它只能在 NeXT 计算机上使用。因此，浏览器被 Berners-Lee 的几位 CERN 同事重新编写，其中大部分输入来自实习生 Nicola Pellow，以便在更广泛的计算机上运行。这款浏览器因其逐行文本输入方法而被称为 Line Mode Browser。它首先在 CERN 内部使用，然后被引入 alt.hypertext Usenet 新闻组。

Putting the Pieces Together

The Line Mode Browser could only handle text and where would the web be if it was just that? Enter Mosaic, a browser that could handle graphics and text, from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
行模式浏览器（Line Mode Browser）只能处理文本，如果互联网只有这样，会怎么样呢？于是出现了 Mosaic，一款可以处理图形和文本的浏览器，来自伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳 - 香槟分校的国家超级计算应用中心（NCSA）。

While Mosaic wasn’t open-source, it was free for non-commercial use. As PC Magazine wrote in 1994, “Mosaic has probably done more to popularize the internet than any other single piece of software has,” thanks to its “snazzy combination of slick design and solid code.” It competed with Cello out of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, but in 1994, Mosaic was “becoming the most widespread internet browser,” we wrote, pointing to its domination of the Unix internet world.
虽然 Mosaic 不是开源的，但它可以免费用于非商业用途。正如 PC Magazine 在 1994 年所写的那样，“Mosaic 在普及互联网方面所做的工作可能比任何其他单一软件都多”，这要归功于其“巧妙的设计和可靠的代码的组合”。它与来自康奈尔法学院法律信息研究所的 Cello 竞争，但在 1994 年，Mosaic “成为了最广泛使用的互联网浏览器”，我们指的是它在 Unix 互联网世界的主导地位。

But while Mosaic was supported and developed further by the National Science Foundation until 1997, it had some competition from its own creators. Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina left the NCSA in 1994, and went on to found a company they (eventually) called Netscape.
但是，尽管 Mosaic 在1997年之前得到了美国国家科学基金会的支持和进一步发展，它也面临来自自己创建者的竞争。马克·安德森（Marc Andreessen）和埃里克·比纳（Eric Bina）于 1994 年离开了NCSA，随后成立了一家后来被称为 Netscape 的公司。

Marc Andreessen in 1998 (Photo by Bromberger Hoover Photo/Getty Images)
Netscape was the beginning of the name-brand browser, but the company originally bore the name Mosaic Communications, and its first product was Mosaic Netscape 0.9. A lawsuit settlement with the NCSA resulted in a name change for the company and the browser.
Netscape 标志着品牌化浏览器的开端，但最初该公司名为 Mosaic Communications，其首个产品是 Mosaic Netscape 0.9。与 NCSA 的一场诉讼和解导致了公司和浏览器的更名。

Netscape Navigator took over the market almost immediately, and continued to dominate it throughout most of the 1990s, peaking at 90% in 1995, according to Visual Capitalist.
Netscape Navigator 几乎立即占据了市场主导地位，并在 1990 年代大部分时间内保持着这一地位，据 Visual Capitalist 报道,1995 年达到了 90%。

The Browser Wars

Meanwhile, Microsoft realized that it had a huge advantage when it came to browsers since most of the world was using machines that ran on the Windows operating system. In 1995, Microsoft bundled a browser called Internet Explorer with Microsoft Plus for Windows 95.
与此同时，微软意识到，在浏览器领域它拥有巨大的优势，因为世界上大多数计算机使用的是运行 Windows 操作系统的机器。1995 年，微软将一个名为 Internet Explorer 的浏览器捆绑到了 Microsoft Plus for Windows 95 中。

Windows 95 launch in 1995 (Photo credit: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP via Getty Images)

It didn’t take long for Internet Explorer (IE) to win over most internet users, but that did attract the attention of the US government, which brought antitrust charges against Microsoft for its practice of preventing computer manufacturers from uninstalling IE and installing other browsers. The case was finally settled in 2001, but IE had three more years of being the preeminent browser ahead of it, peaking at 95% of the market in 2003.
Internet Explorer（IE）很快就赢得了大多数互联网用户的青睐，但这引起了美国政府的关注，后者因微软阻止计算机制造商卸载 IE 并安装其他浏览器而对其提起了反垄断诉讼。此案最终在 2001 年达成和解，但 IE 在此后三年时间仍然保持了主导地位，在 2003 年达到市场份额的 95%。

A Contender

By the late 90s, Netscape was limping along. It was acquired by AOL in 1998, several months after Netscape made its browser free to license and released its source code. That allowed for the creation of the Mozilla project, which initially focused on innovation in the Netscape browser, but later branched out on its own. Mozilla 1.0 arrived in 2002, and following the launch of the Mozilla Foundation in 2003, Firefox 1.0 landed a year later. AOL finally pulled the plug on Netscape Navigator in 2007.
到了 90 年代后期，Netscape 的状况不佳。1998 年，Netscape 被 AOL 收购，几个月后 Netscape 将其浏览器免费授权并发布了源代码。这使得 Mozilla 项目的创建成为可能，该项目最初专注于Netscape浏览器的创新，但后来独立发展。Mozilla 1.0 在 2002 年问世，继 2003 年 Mozilla 基金会成立后，Firefox 1.0 于一年后推出。AOL 最终在 2007 年终止了 Netscape Navigator 的支持。

Searching for Something New

Google was founded in 1998, and though it dedicated its early years to search, in 2008, it developed a browser with some hires from Mozilla. Google Chrome had a slow rollout in its initial year, with about 1% of the market, but now it has the largest share, with about 64% of internet users.
谷歌成立于 1998 年，尽管最初专注于搜索业务，但在 2008 年，它从 Mozilla 招聘了一些人员开发了一个浏览器。Google Chrome 在最初的一年里推广缓慢，市场份额约为 1%，但如今它占据了最大的份额，约为 64% 的互联网用户使用。

Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

Of course a look at the history of web browsers would not be complete without that other major OS maker, Apple. In 2003, the company released Safari for Macs. While it gave Mac users something proprietary, the browser really came into its own in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone, when it went mobile. Safari has a quarter of the mobile browser market overall.
当然，回顾浏览器历史时，不能忽略另一家主要操作系统制造商，苹果公司。2003 年，该公司发布了适用于 Mac 的 Safari。虽然它为 Mac 用户提供了一些专有内容，但真正意义上 Safari 在 2007 年 iPhone 推出时迎来了自己的春天，开始了移动浏览器的时代。Safari 在移动浏览器市场占有率达到四分之一。

Modern Times

Thirty years on, it’s a relatively quiet time in browser history. At Microsoft, IE gave way to Edge, which now runs Google’s Chromium engine, and there are a number of alternative browsers for those with specific needs. Apps compete with browsers for eyeballs, but the five major browsers exist in relative peace, for now.
三十年过去了，浏览器历史相对而言进入了一个相对安静的时期。在微软，IE 让位于 Edge，后者现在运行谷歌的 Chromium 引擎，还有许多针对特定需求的替代浏览器。应用程序与浏览器争夺用户的注意力，但目前这五大主要浏览器相对和平共处。

via : 30 Years of Browsers: A Quick History | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/news/30-years-of-browsers-a-quick-history

什么是浏览器的用户代理？

What Is a Browser’s User Agent?

Your browser sends its user agent to every website you connect to. but what exactly is a user agent, anyway?
您的浏览器会将其用户代理发送到您连接到的每个网站。究竟什么是用户代理？

A user agent is a “string” – that is, a line of text – identifying the browser and operating system to the web server. This sounds simple, but user agents have become a mess over time.
用户代理是一个 “字符串”，即一行文本，用于向 Web 服务器标识浏览器和操作系统。这听起来很简单，但随着时间的推移，用户代理已经变得一团糟。

基础知识

The Basics
When your browser connects to a website, it includes a User-Agent field in its HTTP header. The contents of the user agent field vary from browser to browser. Each browser has its own, distinctive user agent. Essentially, a user agent is a way for a browser to say “Hi, I’m Mozilla Firefox on Windows” or “Hi, I’m Safari on an iPhone” to a web server.
当您的浏览器连接到网站时，它会在其 HTTP 标头中包含一个 User-Agent 字段。用户代理字段的内容因浏览器而异。每个浏览器都有自己独特的用户代理。从本质上讲，用户代理是浏览器向 Web 服务器说 “嗨，我是 Windows 上的 Mozilla Firefox” 或 “嗨，我是 iPhone 上的 Safari” 的一种方式。

The web server can use this information to serve different web pages to different web browsers and different operating systems. For example, a website could send mobile pages to mobile browsers, modern pages to modern browsers, and a “please upgrade your browser” message to Internet Explorer 6.
Web 服务器可以使用此信息为不同的 Web 浏览器和不同的操作系统提供不同的网页。例如，网站可以将移动页面发送到移动浏览器，将新式页面发送到新式浏览器，并将 “请升级浏览器” 消息发送到 Internet Explorer 6。

检查用户代理

Examining User Agents

For example, here’s Firefox’s user agent on Windows 7:
例如，这是 Windows 7 上的 Firefox 用户代理：

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0

This user agent tells the web server quite a bit: The operating system is Windows 7 (code name Windows NT 6.1), it’s a 64-bit version of Windows (WOW64), and the browser itself is Firefox 12.
这个用户代理告诉 Web 服务器很多：操作系统是 Windows 7（代号 Windows NT 6.1），它是 Windows 的 64 位版本（WOW64），浏览器本身是 Firefox 12。

Now let’s take a look at Internet Explorer 9’s user agent, which is:
现在让我们看一下 Internet Explorer 9 的用户代理，它是：

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/5.0)

The user agent string identifies the browser as IE 9 with the Trident 5 rendering engine. However, you might spot something confusing – IE identifies itself as Mozilla.
用户代理字符串使用 Trident 5 呈现引擎将浏览器标识为 IE 9。但是，您可能会发现一些令人困惑的事情 ——IE 将自己标识为 Mozilla。

We’ll come back to that in a minute. First, let’s examine Google Chrome’s user agent, too:
我们一会儿再谈这个问题。首先，让我们也检查一下 Google Chrome 的用户代理：

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/536.5 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/19.0.1084.52 Safari/536.5

The plot thickens: Chrome is pretending to be both Mozilla and Safari. To understand why, we’ll have to examine the history of user agents and browsers.
情节渐入佳境：Chrome 假装是 Mozilla 和 Safari。要了解原因，我们必须检查用户代理和浏览器的历史记录。

用户代理字符串混乱

The User Agent String Mess

Mosaic was one of the first browsers. Its user agent string was NCSA_Mosaic/2.0. Later, Mozilla came along (later renamed Netscape), and its user agent was Mozilla/1.0. Mozilla was a more advanced browser than Mosaic – in particular, it supported frames. Web servers checked to see that the user agent contained the word Mozilla and sent pages containing frames to Mozilla browsers. To other browsers, web servers sent the old pages without frames.
Mosaic 是最早的浏览器之一。其用户代理字符串为 NCSA_Mosaic/2.0。后来，Mozilla 出现了（后来更名为 Netscape），它的用户代理是 Mozilla/1.0。Mozilla 是比 Mosaic 更先进的浏览器 —— 特别是它支持框架。Web 服务器检查用户代理是否包含关键字 Mozilla，并将包含框架的页面发送到 Mozilla 浏览器。对于其他浏览器，Web 服务器发送了没有框架的旧页面。

Eventually, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer came along and it supported frames, too. However, IE didn’t receive web pages with frames, because web servers just sent those to Mozilla browsers. To fix this problem, Microsoft added the word Mozilla to their user agent and threw in additional information (the word “compatible” and a reference to IE.) Web servers were happy to see the word Mozilla and sent IE the modern web pages. Other browsers that came later did the same thing.
最终，Microsoft 的 Internet Explorer 出现了，它也支持框架。但是，IE 没有收到带有框架的网页，因为 Web 服务器只是将这些框架发送到 Mozilla 浏览器。为了解决这个问题，Microsoft 在他们的用户代理中添加了 Mozilla 这个词，并加入了其他信息（“兼容” 这个词和对 IE 的引用）。Web 服务器很高兴看到 Mozilla 这个词，并向 IE 发送了现代网页。后来出现的其他浏览器也做了同样的事情。

Eventually, some servers looked for the word Gecko – Firefox’s rendering engine – and served Gecko browsers different pages than older browsers. KHTML – originally developed for Konquerer on Linux’s KDE desktop – added the words “like Gecko” so they’d get the modern pages designed for Gecko, too. WebKit was based on KHTML – when it was developed, they added the word WebKit and kept the original “KHTML, like Gecko” line for compatibility purposes. In this way, browser developers kept adding words to their user agents over time.
最终，当一些服务器开始查找关键字 “Gecko”（Firefox 的渲染引擎），并为 Gecko 浏览器提供不同于旧版浏览器的页面时，KHTML（最初为 Linux KDE 桌面上的 Konqueror 开发）添加了 “like Gecko” 这些词，以便它们也能获取为 Gecko 设计的现代页面。WebKit 基于 KHTML 开发，当时他们添加了词语 WebKit，并保留了原始的 “KHTML, like Gecko” 行以确保兼容性。因此，浏览器开发者随着时间的推移不断向用户代理中添加关键字。

Web servers don’t really care what the exact user agent string is – they just check to see if it contains a specific word.
Web 服务器并不真正关心确切的用户代理字符串是什么 —— 他们只是检查它是否包含特定关键字。

Uses 用途

Web servers use user agents for a variety of purposes, including:
Web 服务器将用户代理用于各种目的，包括：

Serving different web pages to different web browsers. This can be used for good – for example, to serve simpler web pages to older browsers – or evil – for example, to display a “This web page must be viewed in Internet Explorer" message.
向不同的 Web 浏览器提供不同的网页。这可以用于好事 - 例如，向较旧的浏览器提供更简单的网页 - 或坏事 - 例如，显示 “必须在 Internet Explorer 中查看此网页” 消息。
Displaying different content to different operating systems – for example, by displaying a slimmed-down page on mobile devices.
在不同的操作系统上显示不同的内容，例如，在移动设备上显示精简的页面。
Gathering statistics showing the browsers and operating systems in use by their users. If you ever see browser market-share statistics, this is how they’re acquired.
收集显示用户正在使用的浏览器和操作系统的统计信息。如果您曾经看到过浏览器市场份额统计数据，那么它们就是这样获得的。

Web-crawling bots use user agents, too. For example, Google’s web crawler identifies itself as:
Web 爬虫机器人也使用用户代理。例如，Google 的网络爬虫将自己标识为：

Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Web servers can give bots special treatment – for example, by allowing them through mandatory registration screens. (Yes, this means that you can sometimes bypass registration screens by setting your user agent to Googlebot.)
Web 服务器可以对机器人进行特殊处理，例如，允许它们通过强制注册屏幕。（是的，这意味着您有时可以通过将用户代理设置为 Googlebot 来绕过注册屏幕。

Web servers can also give orders to specific bots (or all bots) using the robots.txt file. For example a web server could tell a specific bot to go away, or tell another bot to only index certain areas of the website. In the robots.txt file, the bots are identified by their user agent strings.
Web 服务器还可以使用 robots.txt 文件向特定机器人（或所有机器人）下达命令。例如，Web 服务器可以告诉特定机器人离开，或者告诉另一个机器人仅索引网站的某些区域。在 robots.txt 文件中，机器人由其用户代理字符串标识。

All major browsers contain ways to set custom user agents, so you can see what web servers send to to different browsers. For example, set your desktop browser to a mobile browser’s user agent string and you’ll see the mobile versions of web pages on your desktop.
所有主流浏览器都包含设置自定义用户代理的方法，因此您可以查看 Web 服务器发送到不同浏览器的内容。例如，将桌面浏览器设置为移动浏览器的用户代理字符串，您将在桌面上看到网页的移动版本。

via: What Is a Browser’s User Agent? By Chris Hoffman Published Sep 28, 2016
https://www.howtogeek.com/114937/htg-explains-whats-a-browser-user-agent/#uses

篇外：文中红色页面为 Mozilla 之书

使用 Mozilla 系列浏览器访问 about:mozilla 网址，可以看到一段

在这里插入图片描述

访问 The Book of Mozilla 可以看到七段
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/book/
相关翻译见 Mozilla 之书_百度百科
https://baike.baidu.com/item/Mozilla之书/9774175

浏览器用户代理字符串的 “无间道”

History of the browser user-agent string

NCSA Mosaic

In the beginning there was NCSA Mosaic, and Mosaic called itself NCSA_Mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), and Mosaic displayed pictures along with text, and there was much rejoicing.
一开始有 NCSA Mosaic，Mosaic 称自己为 NCSA_Mosaic/2.0（Windows 3.1)，Mosaic 显示图片和文字，大家都很高兴。

Netscape

And behold, then came a new web browser known as “Mozilla”, being short for “Mosaic Killer,” but Mosaic was not amused, so the public name was changed to Netscape, and Netscape called itself Mozilla/1.0 (Win3.1), and there was more rejoicing. And Netscape supported frames, and frames became popular among the people, but Mosaic did not support frames, and so came “user agent sniffing” and to “Mozilla” webmasters sent frames, but to other browsers they sent not frames.

随后，一个名为 “Mozilla” 的新网络浏览器出现了，它的名字来源于 “Mosaic Killer”，但 Mosaic 并不觉得好笑，因此公众名称改为 Netscape，Netscape 自称为 * Mozilla/1.0 (Win3.1)*，人们对此更为欢欣鼓舞。Netscape 支持框架，框架流行起来，但 Mosaic 不支持框架，于是便出现了 “user agent sniffing”，网站向 “Mozilla” 发送框架，而对其他浏览器则不发送框架。

nternet Explorer

And Netscape said, let us make fun of Microsoft and refer to Windows as “poorly debugged device drivers,” and Microsoft was angry. And so Microsoft made their own web browser, which they called Internet Explorer, hoping for it to be a “Netscape Killer”.
And Internet Explorer supported frames, and yet was not Mozilla, and so was not given frames. And Microsoft grew impatient, and did not wish to wait for webmasters to learn of IE and begin to send it frames, and so Internet Explorer declared that it was “Mozilla compatible” and began to impersonate Netscape, and called itself Mozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95), and Internet Explorer received frames, and all of Microsoft was happy, but webmasters were confused.
并且 Netscape 说，让我们取笑微软，将 Windows 称为 “缺乏良好调试的设备驱动程序”，微软很生气。于是微软推出了他们自己的网络浏览器，称为 Internet Explorer，希望它能成为 “Netscape 杀手”。
Internet Explorer 支持框架，但它并非 Mozilla，因此收不到到框架。微软变得不耐烦，不想等待网站管理员了解 IE 再开始发送框架，于是 Internet Explorer 宣称自己 “兼容 Mozilla”，开始冒充 Netscape，并自称 * Mozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95)*，于是 Internet Explorer 能够j接收框架标签，全微软都很高兴，但是网页管理员却感到困惑。

And Microsoft sold IE with Windows, and made it better than Netscape, and the first browser war raged upon the face of the land.
And behold, Netscape was killed, and there was much rejoicing at Microsoft. But Netscape was reborn as Mozilla, and Mozilla built Gecko, and called itself Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826, and Gecko was the rendering engine, and Gecko was good.
当时微软将 IE 与 Windows 捆绑销售，并改进它，使其比 Netscape 更优势，于是第一次浏览器大战爆发了。
Netscape 被击败了，微软欢欣鼓舞。但是 Netscape 重生为 Mozilla，Mozilla 开发了 Gecko，并自称为 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826，Gecko 成为了渲染引擎，而且表现不俗。

Firefox

And Mozilla became Firefox, and called itself Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0, and Firefox was very good. And Gecko began to multiply, and other browsers were born that used its code, and they called themselves Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040825 Camino/0.8.1 the one, and Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 SeaMonkey/1.0 another, each pretending to be Mozilla, and all of them powered by Gecko.
后来 Mozilla 成为了 Firefox，并自称为 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; sv-SE; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0，Firefox 表现极佳。Gecko 开始扩散，其他使用其代码的浏览器相继诞生，它们自称为 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040825 Camino/0.8.1 之一，还有 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; de; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 SeaMonkey/1.0，它们都自称为 Mozilla，但实际上都是由 Gecko 驱动。

Konqueror

And Gecko was good, and IE was not, and sniffing was reborn, and Gecko was given good web code, and other browsers were not.
And the followers of Linux were much sorrowed, because they had built Konqueror, whose engine was KHTML, which they thought was as good as Gecko, but it was not Gecko, and so was not given the good pages, and so Konquerer began to pretend to be “like Gecko” to get the good pages, and called itself Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; FreeBSD) (KHTML, like Gecko) and there was much confusion.

Gecko 很优秀，而 IE 不行，sniffing 被重新定义了，Gecko 获得了优质的网页编码，而其他浏览器则没有。
Linux 的追随者们十分悲伤，因为他们开发了 Konqueror，它的引擎是 KHTML，他们认为 KHTML 和 Gecko 一样优秀，但事实证明它并不如 Gecko，因此没有获得优质的网页内容。于是 Konqueror 开始假装自己是“像 Gecko 一样”的浏览器，以便获得优质网页内容，使用了 Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.2; FreeBSD) (KHTML, like Gecko) 这个标识，引发了不少混乱。

Opera

Then cometh Opera and said, “surely we should allow our users to decide which browser we should impersonate,” and so Opera created a menu item, and Opera called itself Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 9.51, or Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061208 Firefox/2.0.0 Opera 9.51, or Opera/9.51 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) depending on which option the user selected.
然后，Opera 创造了一个菜单选项，允许用户决定模拟哪种浏览器。Opera 将自己称为 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 9.51，或者 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061208 Firefox/2.0.0 Opera 9.51，或者 Opera/9.51 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)，具体取决于用户选择了哪个选项。

Safari

And Apple built Safari, and used KHTML, but added many features, and forked the project, and called it WebKit, but wanted pages written for KHTML, and so Safari called itself Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/85.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.5, and it got worse.
苹果构建了 Safari，并使用了 KHTML，但添加了许多功能，并分叉了该项目，称之为 WebKit，但希望页面仍能兼容 KHTML，因此 Safari 自称为 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/85.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.5，情况变得更糟。

And Microsoft feared Firefox greatly, and Internet Explorer returned, and called itself Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0) and it rendered good code, but only if webmasters commanded it to do so.
当时微软非常害怕 Firefox，于是 Internet Explorer 卷土重来，并自称为 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0)，它可以渲染良好的代码，但前提是网站管理员命令它这样做。

Chrome

And then Google built Chrome, and Chrome used Webkit, and it was like Safari, and wanted pages built for Safari, and so pretended to be Safari. And thus Chrome used WebKit, and pretended to be Safari, and WebKit pretended to be KHTML, and KHTML pretended to be Gecko, and all browsers pretended to be Mozilla, and Chrome called itself Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13, and the user agent string was a complete mess, and near useless, and everyone pretended to be everyone else, and confusion abounded.
然后谷歌开发了 Chrome，Chrome 使用了 Webkit，它与 Safari 类似，并且希望网页能够为 Safari 构建，所以假装自己是 Safari。因此 Chrome 使用了 WebKit，并假装自己是 Safari，而 WebKit 又假装是 KHTML，KHTML 又假装是 Gecko，所有浏览器都假装是 Mozilla，Chrome 自称为 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13，用户代理字符串变得一团糟，几乎无用，每个人都在假装成别人，造成了极大的混乱。