Is it possible to detect what operating system a user is coming from using PHP? (mac or windows)

Question

Let's say for example I wanted to echo "You are using Windows!" or "You are using Macintosh!", depending on the users OS. Is this possible?

Answer 1

By analyzing $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] it's possible to tell what system (and browser) the user is claiming to use.

It's easily spoofable, though.

Answer 2

Try the get_browser() function that's built into PHP.

$browser = get_browser(null, true);
echo "Platform: " . $browser["platform"] . "\n";