Xbox Cloud throttles performance if user agent is Linux

Somebody in the reddit comments makes a very good point:<p>&gt; I think this is because of android. Android is based on Linux and identifies as Linux in a browser. android on xcloud is limited to 720p. I don&#x27;t think this is intentional but just a bug they didn&#x27;t think through.<p>Obviously it&#x27;s more fun for people to assume it&#x27;s been done on purpose &amp; bash MS.

I’d guess this is user agent sniffing to determine codecs to use for the video.<p>Linux often doesn’t come with non-free codecs installed, these are often optional extras, even if many people install them.

Thought they only did stuff like this in the bad old days:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slashdot.org&#x2F;story&#x2F;03&#x2F;02&#x2F;06&#x2F;1645229&#x2F;microsoft-sends-broken-stylesheets-to-opera" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slashdot.org&#x2F;story&#x2F;03&#x2F;02&#x2F;06&#x2F;1645229&#x2F;microsoft-sends-...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.com&#x2F;2003&#x2F;02&#x2F;06&#x2F;msn_deliberately_breaks_operas_browser&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theregister.com&#x2F;2003&#x2F;02&#x2F;06&#x2F;msn_deliberately_brea...</a>

The fact that HN eats up random reddit threads with just one random source is so funny considering the always critical comments on other topics. I guess it&#x27;s just the usual hate towards Big Tech.<p>I wonder how easy to manipulate threads here? Cause it seems it wouldn&#x27;t take much that effort.

Everyone that feels like it is outrageous to believe this is evil and there is likely a super reasonable explanation for this should consider that this is not a novel thing. At Netflix and Amazon Prime limit the resolution on Linux to 1080p and 720 respectively. Of course the reason is a different one, but Xbox Cloud would simply get in line with other major video streaming providers. It&#x27;s natural to assume that it might be true and the reasons are silly, just like they are for every other platform.

I&#x27;ve noticed this issue with some streaming services too. eg Amazon Prime Video will serve different quality streams for Chrome on macOS than it will for Chrome on Linux.

They have directions for setting up xcloud on steam deck so I wonder if it’s just an optimization that got messed up. If Microsoft was trying to sabotage Linux there’s far easier ways.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;topic&#x2F;xbox-cloud-gaming-in-microsoft-edge-with-steam-deck-43dd011b-0ce8-4810-8302-965be6d53296" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;topic&#x2F;xbox-cloud-gaming-...</a>

Could it be that they are just trying to push Edge onto people, instead of Windows?

This is very weird, considering they made a Flatpak version of Edge just so the Steam Deck can use Xbox streaming. Maybe that version has a different UA?

I was wondering whenever to continue my subscription. This answers my question.

Microsoft loves Linux, definitely.

Embarrassing.

If the bitrate goes down, too, then people with spotty connections or bad experiences might want to try the other side.<p>I don&#x27;t know how to test this scientifically, but if I change my user agent on Windows to Linux, will that lower the bitrate and make my sometimes slow experience better?

But... Microsoft loves linux?!?

Is there any benchmarks or comfirmation beyond this one person?