Roger Johanssen’s post “No more pixel perfectionism in IE 6” is a clarion call for web developers the world over. We need to stop bending over backwards for IE6. The argument that “we can’t stop developing for IE6 because of the number of people still using it” is a fallacy. I’m convinced that the very reason why IE6 is still hanging around is because we keep going out of our way to make sites work in it. The moment that IE6 users see that most of the web is broken in their browser, they’ll switch.
A colleague of mine told me this morning that the reason why a lot of people still use IE6 is because they don’t have a legitimate version of Windows, so they’ve turned off Windows Update. That’s fine, they don’t need to upgrade to IE7, they can use Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or Safari!
So in the tradition of the last such clarion call, I say to hell with IE6!
Update: Der Caspers makes a good point about IT folks being the ones not wanting to upgrade. In fact I just had a conversation about this with someone yesterday. I can only think of one reason for why IT people won’t upgrade, cost. Unless it’s laziness, otherwise, it’s cost. Security isn’t the reason, IE6 has 22 out of 135 vulnerabilities that remain unpatched. To say nothing of the fact that “To help customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft [began] distributing Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates and the Windows Update and Microsoft Update sites” in 2006! So my recommendation to these IT folks is to get themselves into the modern era and ditch that anachronism that is IE6. Before somebody gets hurt.★
100% Agreed.
We need to stop writing code that supports IE6. If anything, we should write more code that breaks IE6.
var memDestroy = 0;
while(ie <= 6)
{
memDestroy++;
}
I’ve been leaving any IE6 specific todos to the very last minute. It has such low priority given the resources that it is not worth jeopardising my time – unless of course the obvious quick fixes one can do is no biggie.
IE6 is about 8.5 years old now. Almost two versions away (i.e., when IE8 comes out).
True that a lot of people can’t upgrade and even worse, a lot of public locations use IE6 (if not an older version) that any sort of ‘upgrade’ has a high price tag attached to it.
As much as I would love to see IE6 being taken out into the garden and beaten by kids with sticks before being set on fire, I’d say there is a lot of fallacy in the argument that we as web developers have much say in the matter. Of course users have the choice to use any other browser, but the sad fact is that IE6 prevails in environments where users don’t have the option to upgrade their browser as IT defines what software is on the computer. These are the same companies that block Facebook and Flickr as it distracts people from “doing real work”.
As a consequence of these environments a massive chunk of web users really don’t care at all about improvements in browsers and operating systems – they stick to the one they learnt from work 4 years ago and that is good enough. If people are not greedy for better things as the web is only there to do work related things, check your stocks and email and maybe but maybe download a pps of funny pictures to send around the office then there is not much chance.
Windows users don’t upgrade browsers, they get a new browser with a new operating system. As Vista was not promising more than the “good enough” OS and was a pain to install with all its security questions that was a no-go.
I applaud the say that we shouldn’t make IE6 pixel perfect – I actually say there is no pixel perfect on any browser as that would limit the reach of a web product – but I am also not deluding myself into thinking that this will shift the market. We have to attack earlier. I for one now install Xubuntu on any machine where non-savvy people ask me to “give them a computer for the internet”.
It all also boils down once again to web development as a professional skill. If there are still people out there who work “good enough” and “make it work in my browser (=ie6)” and cheap then there is no way for a change.
IE6 is a security issue, that is where we should get the users. In markets like Germany Firefox has much more market share because the media scared the people by saying viruses spread through IE. Sadly enough it was not too far from the truth.
The question is, is it right for agencies to support IE6 just because some lazy corporative monkeys can’t get to have a decent “upgrade” budget?
As Sarven says, it’s 8.5 years old, they had PLENTY of time to react!
It’s so “pocket”!
Christian — I agree with you on most of these points, but I also agree with Ara and the argument that we shouldn’t fall on our swords for experiential parity in IE6. At best, it should be treated as a browser that requires functional completeness but not design integrity for most sites. -Eric
Sorry Ara, but I can’t follow your logic. There are over 100+K Social Assistance beneficiaries in Qc, should we just cut their welfare checks? Then they ll move their lazy ass back to work?
The pirated-XP-excuse doesn’t cut it for me. At least for the sites I am working on, IE6 is in the double digits Mon thru Fri, 9 to 5 and it drops to 5-7% over the weekend, only to rise again on Monday morning when everybody’s back to work. So it’s clearly not the home users who refuse to upgrade, but the IT folks in corporations.
Der Caspers: Good point, post updated!
We shouldn’t be going out of our way to make sites work in IE6, we should be going out of our way to make sure sites work in as many browsers, devices and operating systems as possible. We need to take a serious look at the complexity of the pages we’re making. We need to go back to the basics of the web and remind ourselves about device independence and clarity and conciseness of content.
Seriously, if the pages you make are breaking in IE6, just think about how bad they look and behave in any random mobile browser or any ther portable device. If your pages really need so much extra development work just to make them work in a hugely popular and widely used browser, then you’re doing something wrong.
Good point Paul !
I personally accept light degradations (specially when it allows to remove obscure hacks)
Intel IT hasn’t updated to IE7. If you do any business with Intel, you have no choice but to support IE6.
I really liked your blog! i read 4 others that are on similar subjets, but they domt update very often, thanks.
At our company, security is a top priority, and as such our service does not support IE6. However, we understand that some people at work have no other option other than IE6. As a response, we created a document for them to send to their IT guys which outlines reasons why they should offer an alternative to IE6.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17681961/Why-Your-Company-Should-Offer-an-Alternative-to-IE6
-Arsen
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