Are we done with IE6 yet?
PCWorld’s Tony Bradley called Internet Explorer 6 “the archaic and insecure browser that refuses to die.” I think Tony was being nice.
Throughout what feels like an eternity (since April 27, 2001), IE6 has meant “NO, that design won’t work in IE6; that transparency won’t work with IE6; that will look great, except in IE6.”
I’m on the creative side, so I’m glossing over the stability and security concerns. For instance, all you have to do to crash IE6 is insert this text into your browser:
<style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>
Thanks Wikipedia!
Now I’m not alone, there are a lot of groups out of there that join me in my disdain of the browser. IE6 Funeral is one I thought was pretty clever. The Aten Design Group held a funeral:
Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.
They really know how to put the “Fun” back in Funeral! Here are some pictures!
Ryan Gavin, Senior Director of Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, describes the Microsoft strategy around IE6. “As we have said in the past, one of our main missions is to get people off IE6 as fast as humanly possible. And while IE6 was a great browser for its time, we all need the web to move forward. First, this is good for developers who we want to be able to write the same markup across their sites. It’s good for consumers who should have the protections afforded by a modern browser. Finally, it’s good for the Web, particularly as we look ahead to IE9 and begin to see what’s possible.”
Microsoft’s IE browser Marketshare has dropped to 60 per cent overall with IE8 weighing in at 27.9% with Firefox taking the second spot.
IE6 marketshare is down to 5% in most of the developed nations. So unless we’re building a site for users Mainland China (46%), are we done with IE6 yet?
Sep 3, 2010 12:32 am
We just discontinued IE6 for new development at Hotwire a few weeks back, since we’re doing a couple of pretty big front-end projects right now. But that was based on knowing the pain/time for QA and the developers, and extrapolating the trendline to near 1-2% in Q1 2011, which is where we generally draw the line in the sand for browser support.
While I could find several media and subscription-based sites big and small that have dropped IE6, I didn’t find a lot of other company in the transactional side. And I’m not surprised. 5% of a big transactional site is a lot of money – generally more than the cost of the staff to support it. And it’s never really clear how much of that you give away when you drop support until you actually drop support and feel the pinch.
But the trendline is there, and it’s strong. It will be an easy business case for any engineering group in the first half of next year to wave it good-bye.
Sep 3, 2010 1:08 am
Yes! It’s been the thorn in my side for far too long. Can’t we just move past this already?
Sep 3, 2010 6:15 am
Hallelujah, amen and good riddance. Is it truly, finally okay to say “screw you” to IE6 users? It’s like a fantasy I thought would never come true. IE6 users are the deadbeats of the internet, holding us all back.
I have to wonder who’s most to blame for the longevity of IE6 — is it the deadbeat users themselves, or Microsoft, or the business/design/development communities that bent over backwards to coddle IE6 users for so long? I blame the latter — in other words, my fellow designers and developers, and the companies and clients who keep us employed. Sure, Microsoft gave birth to the ugly baby, but we all worked hard to keep it alive (if you’ll pardon a vulgar metaphor). The time when indulging IE6 users made good business sense has long passed; for organizations that still insist on indulging deadbeat users at the expense of progress and quality, STOP IT ALREADY! Any customer worth having will upgrade if we stop giving them the option not to.
Unfortunately, we will still have to deal with the still-deficient IE7 for years to come. Sigh.
Sep 5, 2010 9:27 am
It’s like trying to do away with the penny, which now costs more than 1¢ to make. We can’t get rid of it until we also get rid of the nickel (1/2 dime) and move the decimal point.
Same with IE 6. We can’t get rid of it until Windows XP goes away.
My 2¢
Sep 7, 2010 9:50 am
It’s interesting how no one really knows when we should stop supporting it. When the question comes up, everyone looks around the office hoping someone will magically have the anser and say “no.”
Sep 7, 2010 2:44 pm
How about we start right NOW! Companies can start saving money on their development efforts today! Just Say No! Who’s coming with me?