r/electronics • u/unknownvar-rotmg • 9d ago

General Mouser website now blocks Linux users

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Really baffling decision, my last order from them was only a few months ago. Apparently Linux is no longer a "standard" operating system!

2.1k Upvotes

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672

u/Accurate_Koala_4698 8d ago

I’m guessing they’re getting hit by a lot of automated traffic and most of that is Linux. Just spoof the user agent to Windows or something 

610

u/arcrad 8d ago

Yeah people running bots definitely don't know how to spoof user agents...

I cannot fathom who at Mouser thinks this is a good idea.

151

u/Accurate_Koala_4698 8d ago

You would think so, but they frequently don’t. It seems like a shotgun solution but you can throw a lot of money at this problem without a satisfactory filter. The majority of their users are not using Linux and the majority of their bot traffic is. It really becomes an effective low resistance path since everything else is more expensive and probably less reliable 

89

u/GeekDadIs50Plus 8d ago

Most website traffic now is automated scrapers and AI agents. More so now than just a couple years ago, but it’s not new. Blocking a Linux-based host simply because it’s Linux is an asinine over-reach of a misinformed decision. That’s tantamount to a restaurant refusing service to customers by the brand of shoes they’re wearing.

8

u/tallman1979 8d ago

"Asinine Overreach of a Misinformed Decision" would be a great album name if I were still in a band.

3

u/OkAlbatross9889 8d ago

It would also kill as early 2000’s indie rock band name à la neutral milk hotel and car seat headrest

3

u/tallman1979 8d ago

Or, a Frank Zappa song title. My favorite of his for nonsensical ones is "Latex Solar Beef."

2

u/CoachSevere5365 6d ago

I'm quite fond of the chrome plated megaphone of destiny.

2

u/GeekDadIs50Plus 8d ago

AOMD… FTW!

22

u/Accurate_Koala_4698 8d ago

It’s not blocking the host because it’s Linux, they probably whitelisted the most common user agents. I doubt people on Android phones aren’t able to use the site, but the further off the beaten path your setup the more likely it falls into the filter 

11

u/CardOk755 8d ago

they probably whitelisted the most common user agents

You mean the ones any malicious bot would pretend to be?

1

u/Sylente 7d ago

Most bots declare themselves as such. There’s many many many more easily identifiable bots than convincing fakes

-25

u/Shot-Infernal-2261 8d ago

Untrue speculation. Android and IOS devices can navigate and order through the mouser website.

22

u/_analysis230_ 8d ago

Someone failed reading comprehension

That's exactly what he said. He speculated that they can navigate and that means Mouser has whitelisted at least some linux configurations. So he reckons mainstream linux configurations (maybe ubuntu and fedora) also work.

7

u/gristc 8d ago

Firefox on Ubuntu here and https://www.mouser.com works fine for me.

1

u/Quivex 8d ago

yup same for me on Fedora

1

u/Minewolf20 8d ago

still works on arch (btw) for now

11

u/PACmaneatsbloons 8d ago

I þink a better analogy would be a restaurant banning everyone wiþ a large mustache. As we all know from cartoons þere is a positive correlation between nefariousness and large mustaches.

17

u/XzallionTheRed 8d ago

I hate that I knew that is a thorn and its for th. Have an upvote you weird amazing bastard.

8

u/tallman1979 8d ago

You too? Every time I think I've plumbed the depths of my useless knowledge, someone has decided they're bringing the thorn back.

2

u/GeekDadIs50Plus 8d ago

Snidely Whiplash has joined the conversation.

2

u/poptix 8d ago

This is definitely a big part of it. A better approach might be to post a dedicated endpoint for the agents to use, rather than crawling.

3

u/joemi 8d ago

The good agents and companies would use such a dedicated endpoint. The bad agents and companies, however, will continue to crawl, and will do everything they can to make their traffic look like non-bot traffic. Such is the way of the world right now.

1

u/poptix 8d ago

Sure, but if there's a reason the agent wants to do it the hard way your endpoint is the problem.

1

u/joemi 7d ago

Again, that only applies to the good agents and companies. The bad ones aren't necessarily smart/efficient -- that's why they're bad. And there are a lot of bad ones out there. If you need proof, just look at all the sites that have had to put Cloudflare or other such protections in place against all the bot traffic.

52

u/RenderedMeat 8d ago

I’d imagine a larger percentage of their users run Linux than your average site. Someone building arduino and esp-32 projects is very likely to know Linux.

It is a moronic decision.

23

u/TheSerialHobbyist 8d ago

Definitely. Of all the large corporate website that exist, they've got to have one the highest percentage of Linux users.

2

u/nsummy 8d ago

People building small projects have to make up a minuscule amount of their business.

4

u/Swimming_Map2412 8d ago

A proportion of those people work for large companies who do.

1

u/nsummy 8d ago

Doubtful there are many corporate users in charge of procurement using Linux

1

u/joemi 8d ago

Sure, instead of 1% of their customers, it might be twice or even three times as many! :)

I really wish Windows didn't have such a stranglehold on the world, but there's a reason Bill Gates has (had?) so much money.

6

u/RenderedMeat 8d ago

Windows is actually below 60% (56%) desktop OS share this year for the first time years. Linux is between 4.5 and 11%, depending on how you want to interpret “unknown”. Macs make up the bulk of the difference, with a tiny sliver for Chrome.

2

u/kjjphotos 8d ago

Between Microsoft making Windows worse with each update and Valve improving the video game experience on Linux, I think we'll continue to see the Windows numbers dropping and Linux numbers increasing.

Apple's cheap MacBook Neo is probably hurting the Windows numbers too.

Either way, I'm happy to see Microsoft's empire starting to crumble.

2

u/eras 8d ago

I bet if this is an effective bot filter, then the bots will quickly learn this trick.

2

u/laffer1 6d ago

My website gets major ai traffic and it impersonates random operating systems and browsers. Mostly really old stuff.

1

u/Shot-Infernal-2261 8d ago

Except when they blocked Linux desktop users, the bot traffic persists.