Walmart Rejects Firefox and Safari

babooo404 writes "Last week, Walmart launched their online video download service. Immediately there were posts that the service did not work with the Firefox or Safari browsers. There was a collective, "WTF" when this happened as this is 2007, not 1997. Now it appears that reports are out that Walmart has completely turned off the ability to get into the application at all by Firefox, Safari or any other browser it does not like."

User-Agent

[apathy maybe]

Which is why I use a user-agent that says "I am not a Googlebot/2.1". But change it to IE or something else if websites don't like it.

Re:Seems reasonable to me

[theangryfool]

And furthermore, depending on how they detect "non-ie" you could probably greasemonkey https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/748/ [mozilla.org] it away (maybe), use the ie tab https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/ [mozilla.org] in firefox, or just change the user-agent.

So what

[jm.one]

Lauch.com still doesnt support Firefox for their audio streams and goes the more than doubtful way of attempting to install a flavor of the Mozilla ActiveX Plugin (bases on this one [www.iol.ie], just with the WMP ActiveX Plugin and their page in the whitelist) This gets more funny when u go to a european MTV side and start thier "Overdrive" plattform, which will attempt exactly the same. I guess this wide use(without contributing to the code at all) is the very reason why there isn't any ActiveX Plugin for Firefox 2.0 yet on the original page.. But going back it s just idiotic to try to get the user to install it at all.. it s not stable enough.. it s more a proove of concept than mission critical code.. and it s more to bypass the problem of sites that are coded in an IE only way... There is a WMP plugin for Mozilla Browsers!!! You just have to script it properly (with JS that is) it s not rocket science. Why am i telling this all? My point is: if Yahoo and MTV can't do this, why should out of all Walmart be able to? (okay it seems like MTV_com is better.. i just cant open any video cause it seems to check the IP and then says they cant show me that in my country... IP block cause of IP rights.. isnt it ironic? i know, proxy is the solution) On a sidenote AOL doesnt seem to be any better.. right it s AOL... hey guys... if your new strategy really shall work you better.. ah hell we have told you a million times...

Re:I wonder ...

[Anonymous Coward]

HP Video Merchant

Re:Of course they wouldn't use Firefox or Safari

[suv4x4]

I mean come on, doesn't everyone know that the internet is run on Windows software and IE is the only REAL web browser! Anyone who uses anything else MUST be a hacker trying to break their site.

This would be funny, if it wasn't true. This was coming 1:1 from the mouth of one of my big clients (and otherwise a smart fella), just 10 months ago.

I would explain in a long tirade how Firefox is picking up and so on and so on. He'd just say "Nah, don't spend a second testing in Firefox, they'll have to use a REAL browser /IE/.".

Of course, I was secretly testing in other browsers for the hell of it, since I'm your typical thickheaded geek.

A month ago, the same client comes back crying that something broke the feature in the new Firefox 2.0. The irony.

(Also, turned out the issue was from a tweak HE made, after reverting it was ok.)

Slashdotted?

[griffjon]

I get (after a few refreshes) (rendered as text from the server) an HTML page that reads: "The Wal-Mart Video Downloads store is currently unavailable due to temporary site maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Either they're fixing it or are slashdotted?

As much as I hate Walmart, they did sell the Linspire systems; I think this is laziness more than intention.

Boycott Walmart!

[TimTerrific]

The simple solution. I wouldn't shop at Walmart if it were the only store in the nation.

No Linux support.

[FunWithKnives]

I think that, more interesting than the lack of support for Firefox, Safari, Opera, et al is the fact that it does not seem to support Linux. Specifically Kubuntu 6.10 with Opera 9.10 got me this little nugget of joy:

We're sorry, your operating system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support Windows 98, ME or NT. Please visit again after you upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. Visit our Help section for complete system requirements information.

Same exact issue with IE6 (ies4Linux) as well.

Honestly, I wouldn't be using Wal-Mart of all places to download my music, but it is still somewhat of a poke in the eye, not just to alternative browsers, but alternative Operating Systems as well, it would appear.

Re:WTF?

[jdmicklos]

Troll?? This goes for any technology. I would agree this is just as bad if they only allowed Firefox...

Re:Don't worry

[Kichigai Mentat]

http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/ [publicdomaintorrents.com]

Re:WTF?

[agallagh42]

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.1 on 2000pro and just checked the Walmart site. No problem at all. I found they sell "Idiocracy" for $18 and change.

Not that I shop at Walmart because I'm one of those "support small business" types. Has anyone else with Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers tried going to the Walmart site?

Yes, the Walmart site works fine in Firefox. It's their music download site that doesn't work. Try this: go to walmart.com, click on the "Entertainment" menu, select "Music", then click the big gray "Music Downloads" button. That's when you get the following message:

We notice you're not using Internet Explorer. To continue, please visit this page using Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.

I'm on Vista Ultimate with Firefox 2.0.0.1. It works fine when I use IE7 of course.

Re:This is Microshaft... pure and simple.

[frdmfghtr]

No IE 6, anyway. The Mac has a primitive IE. It's even pre-installed.

It used to be pre-installed, yes. My iBook G4 had IE 5.2 preinstalled. My MacBook did not come with IE at all.

Re:Dumb newb question

[sarathmenon]

I use Kubuntu "Dapper Drake", but heard that OSX was based on a BSD/Linux-type kernal.(?)

The word's kernel, mate. Kernals went extinct [wikipedia.org] a long time ago.

Should I have used more parentheses?

[tepples]

Apple does not sell a version of Windows [...] Your original statement of "a version of Microsoft Windows available for all Mac computers that Apple Inc. still sells" is false.

I apologize for the misunderstanding, which is likely due to a precedence mismatch. I imagine that you are parsing it as "a version (of Microsoft Windows available for all Mac computers) that Apple Inc. still sells", where the clause is "Apple sells a version of Windows". I intended it as "a version of Microsoft Windows (available for all Mac computers that Apple Inc. still sells)", where the clause is "Apple sells Mac computers". Particle precedence in English is not as cut and dried as that in a programming language.

Re:This is Microshaft... pure and simple.

[ncc74656]

Macs don't. I don't think there's even a version of IE available for MacOS.

Not for Mac OS X, at least. IE 5.1 is (IIRC) the last version for PowerPC-based Macs (don't know if it runs on Classic or if it needs Mac OS 8 or 9 running on the metal), and IE 4.something (4.01?) is the last version for 68K Macs.

Re:How to shoot yourself in the foot, twice...

[Ntimid8r]

This is the comment I received from wal-mart when i asked why firefox isn't supported. Thank you for contacting us at mediadownloads.walmart.com. Your comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet your needs. Thank you for taking the time and writing to us that the Walmart video download site is not compatible with the Firefox browser. I apologize for the inconvenience caused. We have forwarded your feedback to our Research and Development team which is already working in this regard. I once again thank you for your valuable feedback which will help us improve our services. Sincerely, Suzanna Customer Service at WalMart.com

Re:Of course they wouldn't use Firefox or Safari

[SonicSpike]

It's not extortion... Small independent businesses in rural and outlying areas don't have the buying power and shipping infrastructure that these multinational mega corps have. In other words, because Wal Mart buys 100,000 hammers in a year they get them for $5 a piece and only ya $.25 to have them shipped. The mom and pop store in Podunk, Nowhere (BFE) might only buy 100 hammers a year. Because they dont get a bulk rate, they have to pay $7 per hammer, and $.75 for shipping per hammer.

This is just an example but it goes to show that with massive pockets comes distribution and an ability to get bulk rates.