Hotmail Full Version Incompatible With Firefox 3

An anonymous reader notes that Hotmail's full version doesn't work with Firefox 3. Users get the following message when they try to log in: You are temporarily on the classic version of Windows Live Hotmail due to an error encountered during login. Before trying again, please clear your cache and cookies. (Clearing cache and cookies doesn't fix it.) At least 8 other bug reports have been duped to this one. The fault apparently lies with the Hotmail site, not Mozilla — maintainer Dave Garrett assigned the bug to Tech Evangelism, explaining: "I'll... move this over to TE, as my guess is this [is] the site's fault (just bad user agent sniffing?)."

Comments

I'm not at all surprised

[CaptainPatent]

IE comes with MSN as the default page and has links to tons of Microsoft products and services whereas Firefox leans away from most Microsoft-based sites. I'm sure these bugs will be fixed eventually... but I'm also pretty sure Microsoft wasn't too worried about launching Hotmail without Firefox support.

Re:I'm not at all surprised

[onion2k]

I'm sure these bugs will be fixed eventually... but I'm also pretty sure Microsoft wasn't too worried about launching Hotmail without Firefox support.

How long they take to fix it depends on whether they feel people are more likely to change their browser to fix a problem accessing their email, or change to a different email provider. While it's a great deal easier to change to a compatible browser it's not a foregone conclusion that people will necessarily take that route, especially if they're trying Firefox because they're dissatisfied with IE - if they're already trying to defect from the MSFT camp then a problem with Hotmail on FF3 will drive them further away.

Come on Hotmail!

[drspliff]

With a large dev team, lots of server admins, lots of marketing and a massive user base - you mean they don't test at all with other browsers while their in beta?

The only way I could see this happening is if theres an internal policy to use _only_ IE for browsing (unlikely), or if developers were not allowed to.

Re:Hotmail incompatible with me....

[jeff419]

Um, I think M$ does this to force people to use IE to check their hotmail. Not like that doesn't fit their MO

Re:Hotmail incompatible with me....

[Zero__Kelvin]

"Why are FireFox users using Hotmail?"

Not everyone reads Slashdot. Most people who use Hotmail don't necessarily know or care that it is a Microsoft service, or think everything in the computing world was designed by Microsoft. I recently overheard a discussion in the library about Tim Berners Lee and how he was the guy who invented "the Internet" (He really invented the web, which is not the same thing as almost all of us here know, but the better illustration of my point is coming.) What did his friend say?: "I though Bill Gates invented the internet." I was too busy trying to keep from puking to point out that Gates not only did not invent the Internet, but actually originally said the Internet was just a fad.

Re:Hotmail incompatible with me....

[Blakey Rat]

Why do you care what site it is? The simple fact is that every web browser should work with every web site. Period. Would your opinion be different if this was for Yahoo Mail or Gmail?

Re:Hotmail incompatible with me....

[medeii]

Some of us signed up with Hotmail before Microsoft acquired it, or haven't felt inconvenienced enough to switch. I only use it for site registrations anyway, I've got my own domain for my 'real' email.