Internet Explorer 6 receives a pre-emptive funeral

Do you wish IE6 would just die?

  • Yes! Die you standards-violating relic!

    Votes: 32 36.0%

  • Yes and it can take the other versions of IE with it

    Votes: 36 40.4%

  • Yes and it can take IE7 and IE8 with it

    Votes: 12 13.5%

  • Yes and it can take IE7 with it

    Votes: 7 7.9%

  • Yes (provide another reason in the thread)

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Total voters
    89
I wish microsoft ill. not just their stupid browser.
 
All of the most popular browsers are standards compliant. The only way Microsoft is going to join the bandwagon is if us developers stop developing websites for IE.
In essence, stop giving a crap about IE and just develop websites to work in all browsers that are standards compliant.
 
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I'm surprised more browser makers haven't figured out that if they make their browsers controllable through Group Policy, many companies may consider switching. IE9 is going to be damn fast and pretty much standards compliant, and has the advantage of being controlled by GP. If it turns out as good as it appears, other browsers need something to shine.
 
It frightens me just how many corporate organisations in SA still use IE6 ... and they can least afford the risk of using it.
 
Instead of complaining about IE6, developers, companies, etc must just stop surporting it. If people are to dumb to use windows update or dont update software thats dependent on it then thats just to bad. Learn to stay up to date or bugger off!!!
 
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People keep using IE6 because websites still works with it (in general). I wish developers would intensionally cause websites not to load AT ALL in IE6. If you are using IE6 and say 30% of websites simply don't work at all, you will upgrade. It starts with the developers.
 
Viva said:
People keep using IE6 because websites still works with it (in general). I wish developers would intensionally cause websites not to load AT ALL in IE6. If you are using IE6 and say 30% of websites simply don't work at all, you will upgrade. It starts with the developers.
Click to expand...

Correction, it starts with the employers of the developers. I don't know many developers who would refuse to support IE6 after having been chewed out by their employer as a result of a client phoning to complain about incompatibility.
 
Easy enough to fix. I mean really simple. Look how simple this is guys!!!

Just make Google Search incompatible :)

Huh? HUH? What what! Sharp corner lanie!
 
our company's accountant uses ie 6 and he does everybody's payments. I guess its safe coz he hasn't been hacked yet Lol

Crazy
 
Is the pointless rant over yet? Oh, yes. Good.

IE6 is still here, it will be here for the foreseeable future. Some people don't know how to upgrade, some don't care enough to upgrade & the vast majority of it's users can't upgrade even if they offered to pay. Large corporates like ABSA are completely Windows XP based, they run IE6. They will not allow users to install IE7, 8 or 9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or even Chrome Frame. They don't even have any plans to upgrade any time soon. They don't care if you don't like it, they couldn't care less if any vendor decided they aren't going to support it, they'll just get another vendor. Any developer who won't support it is a developer who won't work for them. Any site that isn't viewable in it, is a site that won't be used at ABSA.

Using web standards & graceful degradation you can work around IE6. If you want to. There are plenty of resources like jQuery & CSS fixes that let you ignore IE6's warts, and gracefully degrade down to some level of usability. The big problem is that designers don't seem to care about stuff like this. We must have the rounded corners come what may & we must have rounded corners on all browsers. (I'm just using rounded corners as an example, feel free to choose any other example you wish)

It's completely possible to produce a site that degrades down to a completely usable basic experience for IE6 users, and it's possible to do it without double coding or having a million different stylesheets or tons of different JS scripts. Developing your site like this, makes it easier in the long run to maintain, to develop for mobile or to provide access to disabled users. It takes serious effort to learn, it may take longer to plan & even develop, but it's mostly stuff you should do anyway. Server side validation in addition to client side, HTML based fallbacks to your Javascript features, simplified features, etc.

If you're in a situation where you don't have to support IE6, then bully for you, but most developers aren't in a position to. Just stop whining about it & up your skillset to deal with it, if your employer doesn't care or won't allow graceful degradation (many, actually I sadly reckon most do in SA, because they really have very little understanding of the web) & you do, then that really sucks & I truly sympathise, maybe it's time to brush up that CV and start sending it to people who do. I've had the good fortune to deal with a couple of web developers who were skilled enough to do it & it changes the entire momentum of your project. The IE6 breaks never go away, but you can massage them down.

-- Counter rant complete.
 
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McT said:
It frightens me just how many corporate organisations in SA still use IE6 ... and they can least afford the risk of using it.
Click to expand...

Because it comes default with WinXP and no one wants to upgrade to IE7/8, because of all the security risks. ;)
 
I think IE6 is still around because of the number of hacked, and hence un-updateable, copies of XP still on the web.
 
fluffy54 said:
I think IE6 is still around because of the number of hacked, and hence un-updateable, copies of XP still on the web.
Click to expand...

Yep, but they also use better browsers.

I don't think you can eliminate the need for OS built in browser all together, imagine how difficult it would be settting up a new system.
 
nexxus said:
Is the pointless rant over yet? Oh, yes. Good.

IE6 is still here, it will be here for the foreseeable future. Some people don't know how to upgrade, some don't care enough to upgrade & the vast majority of it's users can't upgrade even if they offered to pay. Large corporates like ABSA are completely Windows XP based, they run IE6. They will not allow users to install IE7, 8 or 9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or even Chrome Frame. They don't even have any plans to upgrade any time soon. They don't care if you don't like it, they couldn't care less if any vendor decided they aren't going to support it, they'll just get another vendor. Any developer who won't support it is a developer who won't work for them. Any site that isn't viewable in it, is a site that won't be used at ABSA.

Using web standards & graceful degradation you can work around IE6. If you want to. There are plenty of resources like jQuery & CSS fixes that let you ignore IE6's warts, and gracefully degrade down to some level of usability. The big problem is that designers don't seem to care about stuff like this. We must have the rounded corners come what may & we must have rounded corners on all browsers. (I'm just using rounded corners as an example, feel free to choose any other example you wish)

It's completely possible to produce a site that degrades down to a completely usable basic experience for IE6 users, and it's possible to do it without double coding or having a million different stylesheets or tons of different JS scripts. Developing your site like this, makes it easier in the long run to maintain, to develop for mobile or to provide access to disabled users. It takes serious effort to learn, it may take longer to plan & even develop, but it's mostly stuff you should do anyway. Server side validation in addition to client side, HTML based fallbacks to your Javascript features, simplified features, etc.

If you're in a situation where you don't have to support IE6, then bully for you, but most developers aren't in a position to. Just stop whining about it & up your skillset to deal with it, if your employer doesn't care or won't allow graceful degradation (many, actually I sadly reckon most do in SA, because they really have very little understanding of the web) & you do, then that really sucks & I truly sympathise, maybe it's time to brush up that CV and start sending it to people who do. I've had the good fortune to deal with a couple of web developers who were skilled enough to do it & it changes the entire momentum of your project. The IE6 breaks never go away, but you can massage them down.

-- Counter rant complete.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have put it better myself, but the bit I've bolded there. That's the real issue and the sad truth. Much of my work is in the form of contract work for South Africa's 'premium' design agencies, but not 1 of the many project I've done for them has ever allowed for graceful degradation. It must always look and work exactly the same in every browser.

It's not just the agencies fault either, it's their clients that can't see the value of graceful degradation, and why should they ...unless of course it directly affects their pockets. Ideally they should be charged say 30% more - maybe that'll do it ;)
 
Mien Got, people actually wasted money on IE6's "death?"
 
There are many systems in big enterprises that were written for IE6 and have worked unchanged for years. Upgrading IE can break many of those systems and they don't want to spend money re-writing working systems.

So many of us poor developers are forced to still cater for it.
 
The only reason while IE6 still has such a big marketshare is because noobs still wanna hang onto their WinXP and not dump that ancient relic and go with Windows 7.

I say IE6 should die a very fast and painfull death and take WinXP with all it's autorun virusses with it.
 
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