![\"war-on-ie6\"](\"http:\/\/unitstep.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/war-on-ie6.jpg\" "\\"war-on-ie6\\"")
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IE6 is universally reviled among web developers for its poor support of web standards<\/a>, namely with CSS<\/acronym> and even PNG<\/acronym><\/a> transparency<\/a>. Many hours of hair-pulling frustration have been wasted when developing web applications, trying to “get things working right” in IE6 after having already spent so much time making a site look good in most of the other browsers. IE7, while better, is still not that great<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, you may be surprised to know that I think the “War against IE6”<\/a> is misguided and perhaps a bit out of touch with reality. It’s not that I don’t believe in their message, but rather that I believe it’s somewhat impractical. The unfortunate reality is that support for IE6 will have to continue for some time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The article suggests using a conditional comment tag to show a nice “warning” to IE6 users, recommending that they upgrade to a newer browser, preferably one that isn’t IE at all. The “warning” is shown in a comforting green colour, suggesting peace and tranquility rather than the typical yellow\/amber of other warnings. Note that this is much better than using a modal dialog box forcing people to read<\/a> why you think they should stop using IE6.<\/p>\n For the most part, this message appeals most to those who stopped using IE a long time ago. These people are keenly aware of the drawbacks of IE6, and indeed even the drawbacks of IE7 and IE8. You don’t need to convince these people to switch, as they already have<\/strong>. But what about those that haven’t, such as the average user<\/a>? Well, unfortunately they don’t care and are likely to be annoyed at yet another warning asking them to upgrade their software; to them, it’ll be indistinguishable from the plethora of ads, popups and such asking them to download and install software they don’t know about.<\/p>\n The unfortunate fact is that most people simply don’t care<\/em> about what browser they’re using. Furthermore, they don’t want to switch because what they’ve been using has worked for so long and from their point of view, it isn’t “broken”. Indeed, although Firefox has been nicely eating away at IE’s market share in the past few years, the real decline in IE6 happened<\/a> when Microsoft started pushing out IE7. People generally won’t upgrade unless something is horribly broken or they are forced to.<\/p>\n This creates a sort of catch-22. You could<\/em> code your website to not work at all with IE6, but then people would simply leave and go to another one. Only if absolutely every site out there did the same, would there be a chance of this having a real effect. This is apparently the goal of this campaign, but I fail to see how it will pick up “critical mass” since the early adopters will suffer the most if they alienate their users this way.<\/p>\n Furthermore, as the article acknowledges, corporations are notoriously<\/em> slow when it comes to adopting patches, upgrades and new versions of software because of the extra support and training required of their staff and IT teams. This is why you won’t find the latest versions of MS Office being rapidly deployed right on release day, nor will you find many businesses scrambling to install the latest Windows Service Pack on their workstations. Heck, many are still using XP and will continue to do so for some time. I imagine Windows 2000 still has a small but noticeable install base.<\/p>\n For this reason, IE6 still has a large install base in businesses. Heck, in my work place IE6 is still the standard, and indeed some of the corporate intranet sites only<\/strong> work in IE6. It is a damn shame and a travesty, but one that’s a reality of the corporate world.<\/p>\n Even technical people such as non-web developers still use IE6 at my workplace because of corporate policy. They are completely free to use Firefox or Opera (as I do) but “choose” or stick with IE6 simply because it’s there and that’s what they’ve been using for 5+ years. If these people can’t be bothered to switch, what’s to make even less technically-inclined folks switch? This reinforces the idea that people won’t switch unless it’s done for them, by default.<\/p>\n This sort of thing would never<\/em> fly in the world of e-commerce, where your goal is to attract the widest share of users, not alienate them through an admirable, but misguided attempt to improve the state of the web. The goal of an e-commerce site is to make the flow of things and user interaction as smooth as possible. They last thing you want is a large warning, even if it’s in green, to disrupt the user.<\/p>\nPreaching to the converted<\/h3>\n
Technical details for the non-technical<\/h3>\n
Restrictions to the market<\/h3>\n
E-commerce: The big question<\/h3>\n