Comments on: The misguided war against IE6 http://unitstep.net/blog/2009/02/21/the-misguided-war-against-ie6/ the home of peter chng Tue, 22 May 2012 03:36:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Chris http://unitstep.net/blog/2009/02/21/the-misguided-war-against-ie6/comment-page-1/#comment-161496 Chris Sun, 17 May 2009 07:08:34 +0000 http://unitstep.net/?p=752#comment-161496 Also "word" to what William said, love the line "that festering turd of a browser that is IE6" haha. Also “word” to what William said, love the line “that festering turd of a browser that is IE6″ haha.

]]> By: Chris http://unitstep.net/blog/2009/02/21/the-misguided-war-against-ie6/comment-page-1/#comment-161495 Chris Sun, 17 May 2009 07:06:50 +0000 http://unitstep.net/?p=752#comment-161495 Interesting take, but I think the idea is to get enough sites using these types of warnings that the browser would then become "broken" and users would have a reason to upgrade, the only way this works is if a ton of websites get involved. Think about if sites like google, craigslist, facebook, or twitter got involved, users wouldn't have any other alternative. Not sure how effective they are but there are mobile apps that allow you to use updated browsers without actually installing them, if they are effective this is definitely a viable alternative and should be used until the corporations can get it sorted. What has become clear is that until we (web developers) grow some balls and take a stand on this, we'll be stuck with the limitations of that god awful browser, as well as the wasted hours. Maybe I'm skewed because it's 3am and I want to launch my new site update and I'm dealing with damn ie6 haha, but this is getting pretty old and I'm joining the cause and disabling ie6 support on 8/27. Interesting take, but I think the idea is to get enough sites using these types of warnings that the browser would then become “broken” and users would have a reason to upgrade, the only way this works is if a ton of websites get involved. Think about if sites like google, craigslist, facebook, or twitter got involved, users wouldn’t have any other alternative. Not sure how effective they are but there are mobile apps that allow you to use updated browsers without actually installing them, if they are effective this is definitely a viable alternative and should be used until the corporations can get it sorted. What has become clear is that until we (web developers) grow some balls and take a stand on this, we’ll be stuck with the limitations of that god awful browser, as well as the wasted hours. Maybe I’m skewed because it’s 3am and I want to launch my new site update and I’m dealing with damn ie6 haha, but this is getting pretty old and I’m joining the cause and disabling ie6 support on 8/27.

]]> By: William http://unitstep.net/blog/2009/02/21/the-misguided-war-against-ie6/comment-page-1/#comment-149854 William Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:53:30 +0000 http://unitstep.net/?p=752#comment-149854 It's also worth noting that a fair number of users can't upgrade to IE7 or 8 because they are stuck of Windows platforms that don't support it, and I'm guessing that most people on IE6 don't see non-IE browsers as an option. Depending on the stats you look at, about 1.5% of users (so 10-15% of IE6 users) are on Windows 2000 or below. I'm guessing a high percentage of the rest are stuck on Windows XP service pack 1, either because they have a hooky copy of the OS with a blacklisted serial that prevents the installation of SP2, or because they are stuck in a corporate environment where SP1 is still the adopted standard. I work in an organisation with 3500 PCs, all running IE6 on Windows XP SP1. For a year I've been wearing down my managers to let me experiment with trying to overthrow IE6 with Firefox and it looks like I've finally got the go ahead. This is the way to kill IE6 - people in corporate IT teams need to push for the deployment of better browsers on their networks. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the people who use IE6 at home also use it at work - maybe if they saw how much better a newer browser performs with AJAX applications, they might switch at home too. I think developers need to consider the campaign in the context of their own sites too. I work in local government, where there's absolutely no way that I could thumb my nose at IE6 users on our public site. Would I put a banner like this on the site for my brother's plumbing business site or my mother's bed and breakfast site? No, because those sites are their to attract business - preaching about my own personal gripes with Microsoft would not be appropriate. But on another site I'm developing - a tool for developers to test regular expressions - yes I would. There, my audience ought to know better, and if they are too lazy to use a half decent browser, as far as I'm concerned they can go dangle, because I'm not doing the IE6 dance for them. In fact, for that site I intend to just block IE6 users completely so I don't have to think about what the site might or might not look like in that the festering turd of a browser that is IE6. It’s also worth noting that a fair number of users can’t upgrade to IE7 or 8 because they are stuck of Windows platforms that don’t support it, and I’m guessing that most people on IE6 don’t see non-IE browsers as an option. Depending on the stats you look at, about 1.5% of users (so 10-15% of IE6 users) are on Windows 2000 or below. I’m guessing a high percentage of the rest are stuck on Windows XP service pack 1, either because they have a hooky copy of the OS with a blacklisted serial that prevents the installation of SP2, or because they are stuck in a corporate environment where SP1 is still the adopted standard.

I work in an organisation with 3500 PCs, all running IE6 on Windows XP SP1. For a year I’ve been wearing down my managers to let me experiment with trying to overthrow IE6 with Firefox and it looks like I’ve finally got the go ahead. This is the way to kill IE6 – people in corporate IT teams need to push for the deployment of better browsers on their networks. It wouldn’t surprise me if many of the people who use IE6 at home also use it at work – maybe if they saw how much better a newer browser performs with AJAX applications, they might switch at home too.

I think developers need to consider the campaign in the context of their own sites too. I work in local government, where there’s absolutely no way that I could thumb my nose at IE6 users on our public site. Would I put a banner like this on the site for my brother’s plumbing business site or my mother’s bed and breakfast site? No, because those sites are their to attract business – preaching about my own personal gripes with Microsoft would not be appropriate. But on another site I’m developing – a tool for developers to test regular expressions – yes I would. There, my audience ought to know better, and if they are too lazy to use a half decent browser, as far as I’m concerned they can go dangle, because I’m not doing the IE6 dance for them. In fact, for that site I intend to just block IE6 users completely so I don’t have to think about what the site might or might not look like in that the festering turd of a browser that is IE6.

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