Today the browser all designers, developers and even some general web users love to hate celebrates 8 years since it was released. That’s right it was August 27th 2001 this “hit our desktops”.
It is hard to believe that this browser is still being supported and still being used 8 years later. Nothing in the tech industry should be used for this long, what’s next ZIP drives going to make a comeback? In its day IE6 was a good browser, but its day ended a long time ago.
As a web developer it is hard to explain the “pain” I’m referring too, but just imagine you design and build something that works across all browsers perfectly … then you need to spend 3-4 hours (or more or less) to hack it together to work in IE6. Use PNG’s? Forget it. Use min-height / max-height? Forget it. I could keep going but I won’t, in short there are so many CSS attributes that it just can not render. As long as Microsoft continue to support this browser the web industry will still have to support it for clients that either won’t upgrade or can’t upgrade.
Maybe this doesn’t mean anything to most of you, but this is my livelihood and it is a pain still having to be limited to something that was built 9 years ago where the things we can do on the web now where seen as impossible. Sure it is not for every client, but majority out there still want their website to be viewable by majority of web users and while IE6 is still used by a large number of people then we have to support it. To give you an idea as of July 2009 14.4% of people still use IE6, this is nearly equal to the 15.9% that are using IE7 and more than the 9% that are using IE8. We can’t ignore these people yet, as much as we would like too.
WHY UPGRADE?
“But why do I need to upgrade my browser” you ask. “And Internet Explorer 6 works just fine as far as I can tell”. Well, the reality is a bit different. The fact is Internet Explorer is a proverbial dinosaur where the internet is concerned. And like the dinosaurs it has no place in the modern internet. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you want an in-depth look at all the many reasons why Internet Explorer 6 is ready for the garbage bin swing by the extensive Wiki at IE6: Do NOT Want! Or if you just want to get a basic idea, here are the three great reasons for upgrading Internet Explorer right now:
IE6 DOESN’T WORK THE WAY IT SHOULD
Internet Explorer 6 never worked the way a browser should work. As a result the pages you visit with this browser don’t necessarily display properly. Web designers and developers have bent over backwards for years to accommodate this unfortunate circumstance but now they are starting to leave Internet Explorer 6 and its users behind. So if you don’t upgrade your browser now, chances are more and more of the world wide web will either become harder to surf or inaccessible to you.
IE6 IS A SECURITY RISK
Internet Explorer 6 is full of security issues, holes and other bugs that put your computer, your data and your privacy at risk. There are many reasons for this but right now the main one is that Microsoft themselves stopped developing Internet Explorer 6 in 2006 (so close to 3 years ago) and replaced with a new version of the browser. In effect, if you are surfing the internet with this old browser you are exposing yourself and your data to all sorts of nasty tomfoolery for no reason.
IE6 IS OLD AND OUTDATED
Internet Explorer 6 is old and outdated. And just like it would make no sense to hold on to a crappy old black and white TV if someone offered you a shiny new High Definition flat screen TV for free, holding on to Internet Explorer 6 is just plain silly because the upgrade is free directly from Microsoft. In the end it is just a piece of software, it has no sentimental value and the new one is both safer, easier to use and give you a whole host of new features you never had before. And as a bonus the web sites you visit will act the way they are supposed to. Bottom line? If you are still stuck in the browser dark ages, take a few minutes and upgrade now.
HOW TO GET USERS TO UPGRADE
You can educate your client with browser stats that less and less people are using IE6 (which is a good thing), you can set up a redirect on your website to an information page about the benefits of upgrading or even a creative little idea like the people at ie6update.com.
So “happy birthday” IE6 I guess … I really hope I’m not posting a birthday message next year.
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
grant added these pithy words on Aug 27 09 at 4:07 pmSimon,
in theory, I agree with you 100%. IE6 is a piece of crap and needs to be taken out with the rest of the garbage. ideally.
unfortunately the reality is different, and many of us in IT end up supporting outdated, buggy technology that is long past its due date. I deal with this sort of thing every day, too.
it is often difficult for customers to justify upgrading (browser, OS, hardware, whatever) when it is not broken. by “customers” I mean the typical corporate IT department, or to a lesser extent, end users themselves.
and for the meaning of “customer” in the web development sense – they care about their end users. if 25% of their target userbase uses IE6 (I don’t know what the numbers are), then unfortunately, web developers get stuck having to spend extra time to make sure things work properly. it comes with the territory.
there is one positive in all this: you can, by default, include additional time in your project quotes to allow for dealing with outdated technology.
call it the IE6 tax
