The user agent string is too loaded with backwards compatibility to remove or change. So the next best thing to do is supersede it - add a new agent-id or some such which is mandated by standard to be in the form "BrowserName/Version", e.g. "Chrome/22.0" or "Firefox/15.0.1", while keeping the old user-agent. Problem is I guess it's not really worth it - it doesn't expose any new information not already in the user agent, and it doesn't stop site authors relying on specific agent-ids. So I guess the way forward is try to ignore the user agent completely and just use feature detection.
I enjoy sites which provide me with the correct download link for software, based on the fact Firefox places "Linux x86_64" in my User-Agent.
Having said that, the flip side is just as bad, when you get completely rejected from sites because "We haven't tested this site for your browser or operating system". It's a website for crying out loud. I don't get too mad at sites which implement this as long as they provide me a way to continue "at my own risk". However it's the final straw when they flat out refuse to serve me anything other than a page telling me they haven't tested the website for my browser/OS combination... sigh
Edit: This might give some food for thought for AshleysBrain. I like your suggestion, but am curious if we can find a way to send OS and architecture to sites so that they can give me nice download links...
