Ask any developer you know what’s the one thing they don’t like about their job and I guarantee 4 out of 5 times the answer would be “developing for IE 6.” We’ve spent many a day creating smoothly functional and well-designed web sites only to have that design and functionality get smashed into tiny little pieces against the brick wall that is IE 6. IE 6 doesn’t support many basic things other modern browsers do: PNGs, basic CSS functionality, AJAX… PC World even named it #8 on their list of Worst Tech Products of All Time.
It seems some folks have decided not to take it anymore. Facebook encourages users to upgrade their IE browser to IE 7, Apple’s MobileMe doesn’t support it at all, and now 37signals will cease offering IE 6 support on August 15, 2008.
37signals makes some great points about their decision:
“IE 6 is a last-generation browser. This means that IE 6 can’t provide the same web experience that modern browsers can. Continued support of IE 6 means that we can’t optimize our interfaces or provide an enhanced customer experience in our apps. Supporting IE 6 means slower progress, less progress, and, in some places, no progress. We want to make sure the experience is the best it can be for the vast majority of our customers, and continuing to support IE 6 holds us back.”
So what does this mean? Is this the start of a world wide web snowball? And how do we get everyone on board? I have some ideas:
- Find the sites with the highest percentage of IE 6 users, block those sites from IE 6 users until they upgrade.
- On e-commerce sites, charge a 5% usage fee for buying a product while using IE 6.
- Convince Google to modify their logo (also known as a Google Doodle) to include a “Just Say No to IE 6″ badge in one of the Os.
- Install the savethedevelopers.org script on every site we develop.
- Tell everyone to write a letter to their Congressperson.
- Start a petition to ban IE 6.
So maybe not all these ideas are helpful, but I bet some of them would get the job done right quick. I mean, IE 6 is still a fairly widely used browser, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. I’d love to hear some other ideas.
I totally agree Lydia! Even though I’m not a programmer I would have to say that hours and hours and hours of productivity is lost at web firms around the world trying to make modern websites work in that horrible, antiquated browser!
I want to sue Microsoft and get my money for all the time I’ve had to pay to optimize sites for their lame browser!
Some websters will remember the dark days of OS 9, iTunes 1, IE 4.5, and Netscape 4. Probably the worst bunch of software to ever run on 32 M of RAM.
I agree IE 6 is a drag, but relatively speaking programming for it is a breeze because at least it supports CSS positioning and table less design.
I had a VP of IT still using Netscape 4 up until 2004 and one of our clients was using it right up until last year, 2007! Can you believe it?