We recently stopped testing new sites in Internet Explorer 6. Why? Two reasons: First, it’s just an awful browser. We end up having to take perfectly lovely code and add hours of hacks just to make a site function at a passable level on IE6. And secondly: budget. It is a colossal waste of client resources to ask them to funnel budget into prepping their site to function on IE6, which by all that is holy, should be banished from the web. Says Dan Oliver, editor of .net, a UK magazine about Web design in a CNN.com article from last week:
“This isn’t an anti-Microsoft campaign,” he said. “Microsoft makes some fantastic products. The latest version of their browser is a good browser. But with regards to IE 6 … [it] is an awful browser and no one should be using it.”
And then the article goes on to state:
In a statement to CNN, Microsoft said it also wants people to turn away from IE 6. “Microsoft has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to the latest version of our browser,” the company said. “Internet Explorer 8 offers improvements in speed, security and reliability as well as new features designed for the way people use the Web.”
Okay… I understand not wanting to upgrade the minute something new and shiny releases. But attention to the 15-25% of folks still on IE6: we are now on IE8… UPGRADE, PLEASE! Already, web designers are installing code into sites that will direct you to an upgrade site before you can access their site. We at Waxcreative aren’t being that drastic. We just aren’t coding for you anymore. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we can’t afford it. Or rather, we’d like to use those resources elsewhere, like for introducing new features. Says www.ie6nomore.com, the site leading the initiative to ban IE6:
“As any web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time. Beyond that, IE 6’s support for modern web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the web back.”
In our studio we have a document where we identify regular IE6 issues. Someone named it IE 6 Must Die. The list starts with this:
* Every site we create requires extra coding to function accurately on IE6. EVERY SITE.
And then points this out a few angry bullets later:
* Hacks are workarounds and not always seamless. Even with the hacks, the site will not look perfect. There will be too much white space or not enough white space between sections. Margins will be a little off. Lists may be indented too much.
Ultimately what it comes down to is budget. Far be it for us to turn down work, and coding for IE6 is a lot of work. We could treat the studio to lunch brought in on a daily basis with the amount of time we have spent fighting with IE6 over the past few years. But it has become irresponsible to support IE6. Those folks on IE6 are already seeing the internet badly. I shudder to think how our own home page renders to them (and 13% of our traffic this past month alone was on IE6 — 13%!!) These IE6-ers either don’t care or are too clueless to understand. I don’t mock cluelessness, but if they are that ill-connected, why are we devoting so much money to coddling their ignorance?
Microsoft has ceased to support the dinosaur, and so have we. In this rapidly evolving online world, we must stay current with browsers. Those who don’t are liabilities. Let’s not make it superfluously expensive for those site owners to invite us to visit. You don’t want to be THAT guest, do you?
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I cannot agree more whole-heartedly with this post.
I am not much of an IE user to begin with, preferring to use Firefox instead (though I must admit I have not tried out IE8 yet — I hear it is pretty good). Still, I know that the majority of the folks who visit the sites we design and maintain are indeed IE users. This is why we applied IE6 hacks for so long.
While working on a site last year, I exclaimed, frustratingly, that we were enabling the technically lazy in the world by applying all these hacks. At that point, almost half of our browsing audience was still on IE6. I’m pleased to see that that percentage has gone down, but even so, to see that over ten percent of our browsing audience is still on IE? I stand firm with Emily with a megaphone (though, if you have met us, you would know we probably don’t need megaphones) to say: COME ON PEOPLE! UPGRADE! IE6 MUST DIE!
Oh, and by the way, if you are unsure as to what version of IE you are running, it is super easy to find out:
- Open up IE
- Click on “Help” in your menu bar
- Choose “About Internet Explorer”
- a box will pop up and hopefully it will say Version: 7.x or higher!
If you want to update from IE 6 to continue visiting websites that are ending support for that browser version. update to IE 8 here – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
Plenty of popular websites like Digg and YouTube have announced that they are also ending support for IE 6, so if you want to keep watching videos on YouTube, I would suggest upgrading. However, if you still need more convincing, here are eight more reasons why you should upgrade – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/default.aspx
And if you have any problems with installation, check out this guide from the IE Solution Center – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949220
– Jake
MSFT Internet Explorer Outreach Team
Wow! Thanks for all the great links, Jake. Great point about Digg and YouTube.
–Emily
Emily Cotler wrote (in part): “I shudder to think how our own home page renders to them (and 13% of our traffic this past month alone was on IE6 — 13%!!) These IE6-ers either don’t care or are too clueless to understand. I don’t mock cluelessness, but if they are that ill-connected, why are we devoting so much money to coddling their ignorance?”
Your site looks fine to me in IE6. (But shortly I’ll try it with Firefox 3.0/3.5 and Opera, for comparison.)
I use IE6 for an abbreviated list of favorites, like job listings on Craigslist (which is why I hit your site with it first.) I’d happily upgrade to a newer version, but as I am stuck with Windows 2000 this is not an option. I wonder how many others have a similar constraint.
I use Firefox 3.5 for general browsing, and always update it to the latest version. I keep FF3.0 and Opera for compatibility checks.
My only concern with banning IE 6 are the users who are unable to upgrade or are on such systems as MSNtv (formally known as WebTV). These users aren’t able to upgrade or able to view higher quality sites, which really is a shame. But are we to say tough on you for not being able to afford better systems or able to upgrade?
I agree with the economy the way it is, no one can afford to waste valuable time or energy. Or money for upgrading systems when the ones they have work (just not as great as newer ones).
I do wish however that people could stop using IE 6 and below. Oh what a sweet world that would be!
BTW, I have an old dinosaur pc that doesn’t have enough storage space to upgrade to anything higher IE 5! But it’s a trooper and still keeps going.
[...] for poor web standards. And while it has gotten better in the two major releases since the piss-poor IE6, IE remains a faulty browser that requires a host of hacks. For instance, javascript, that basic [...]
Internet Explorer 8 is very good because it is as stable as Opera. I hate the previous versions of IE like IE6 because it hangs frequently. :
Internet Explorer 8 have been my most used browser this year, it is definitely stable and fast loading too. ~