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Published Monday September 8, 2008 at 8:00 am
By Thord Daniel Hedengren
The Death of Internet Explorer 6: Still Prematurely Called
There’s some noise about Internet Explorer 6 right now, originating from the fact that the browser turned 7 (!) on August 27th, 2008. That’s some lifespan, and something to mock if you’re running a site called IE Death March. The list of stuff that came out after IE6 is hilarious, older than the first iPod indeed, do you remember when that one came out?
IE6 is evil, developing for it is evil, and it sucks.
Most designers agree: IE6 is evil, developing for it is evil, and it sucks. I’d reckon most IE6 users would agree too, problem is, they’re stuck with it for some reason. It could be the fact that they don’t know how to upgrade, but more likely it is an OS issue.
And that’s why I think decision to pull support for IE6 is silly. Sure, you could follow Adii’s suit and charge extra if your client wants IE6 support, but to me it sounds like you should up your prices a bit in the first place.
Let me put it this way. If you’re not support IE6, then you’re telling Windows 2000 users to piss off, along with a considerable chunk of the surfers. IE6 isn’t a 5% share browser, like Safari, it’s got 25% of the market! That’s right, 1/4 of the people surfing the web are using Internet Explorer 6, a web browser more than 7 years old.
Safari’s got 5%, and Opera even less. I’m not hearing anyone bitching about not supporting these browsers. Sure, they might be easier to develop for, but does that really matter? Isn’t that just developers being lazy?
Stats from here, almost similar numbers here. I’m sure there are other ways to measure them, and some target audiences will render completely different ones.
IE6 isn’t a 5% share browser, like Safari, it’s got 25% of the market!
Do I think IE6 should be retired? Of course, it is a bad browser, for both user and developer. However, I make websites, and both me and my clients prefer if people can use them.
When Internet Explorer 6 is truly dead, I’ll stop supporting it. Until then, I’ll clench my teeth and make sure that the sites I do work for the 25% stuck with IE6. That’s my problem, not theirs. They have it hard enough at it is, being stuck with such a crappy browser in the first place.
More reading: Wisdump, Elliot Jay Stocks, Webmaster-Source
So what do you think? Should designers stop supporting IE6, and forget about the 25% statistics? Share your view in the comments.
"));
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I’m with you in principle, but I really have to question the reason people have not moved on. In a few cases it is ignorance that there are safer, faster, and better alternatives. In a few cases it is laziness.
From my experience the overwhelming bulk of IE6 users come from corporate US and UK users. I speak with them occasionally asking why they haven’t upgraded to a better browser and generally get the same response: IT hasn’t cleared IE7 (or Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc…) for internal use. On the rare occasions where I can get a bit more insight into a company’s internals, this is most often due to an application developed several years ago that only works in IE6. This seems like a valid reason… but is it?
What expense is a corp’s IT department going to to manage the threats posed by IE6 usage? What sites are blocked, how many antirvirals and malware scanners need to be installed on every single PC on the network? How many complaints and queries do they have to deal with daily when yourwebsiteofchoice.com simply doesn’t work right? I’m certain that in some cases a serious look as been taken as to the cost of redeveloping whatever internal legacy app is the reason for sticking with IE6, but in a lot of cases it seems to smack of apathy, or at least laziness. I’m not free to speak of specific examples here, but I can tell you that there are a dearth of absolutely ridiculous and asinine reasons IT departments won’t move on.
I see IE6 more as a symptom of IT problems rather than a disease in and of itself.
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I think our decision to charge extra for IE6 support stems from an education perspective, since most IE6 users don’t know about the difficulties they are creating by continuing the use of this very old browser.
Thus far, none of our clients have had a problem with this and most of them have decided to ignore IE6 all together. Fact is, there needs to be pressure from some groups to speed up the phasing out of IE6 and if we can help in that regard; great!
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Realistically, the final deciding factor for whether or not your site has to support a specific browser should be based on your site statistics, not the global browser distribution.
For example, if I run a site that is directed to the technically elite, maybe 1% of that 25% of the global market may even end up at my site in the first place, so it isn’t cost-effective to make sure that my site works flawlessly there.
Also, don’t be too quick to downplay the importance of Safari. Safari is more important than it’s percentage indicates because a very high majority of those users are on Macs, a platform where IE hasn’t existed since version 5.5. The iPhone is another reason to support Safari, although it will still need some time to mature.
My point is, target your browser support to what your users use, so that you don’t waste time fixing bugs that nobody will see instead of creating great content for your site.
Wally
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Every website I do I install analytics on, and this is what I can tell you. 25% of users still use IE6, but less than 2% of the total users are forced to because of their browser. The vast majority of users come in on Windows XP, Windows Vista is the second highest. Mac users were third. I’m not talking websites that are geared towards designers either, but sites that are for Human Resources, or sites aimed at parents of the Catholic School System here. 250 visitors a day, and less than 2% are forced into IE6 by OS, but 25% choose to use it. IE6 was a critical update, which means it’s automatic, so people have to tell it no for it not to update.
I don’t agree with Adii at all. Making compatible and accessible web sites is a part of the job. I think a part of being a professional is giving your client something that works. You shouldn’t charge extra for making it work in a browser that 1/4 of users use, likewise, you shouldn’t charge extra for SEO (title tags, alt tags, meta tags for yahoo & msn).
Charging more for doing the whole job, to me, is unethical.
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Most ppl that use IE6 simply don’t know about other browsers! We have two picks:
1) wait until all users will find an alternative (or update button)
2) MAKE them to upgrade by not supporting.
I really HATE IE6, i spend 25% for fixing bugs and finding workarounds and trust me, i’m for ie6 death declaration
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You’ve hit the nail on the head, Adii. I think that not actively supporting the browser, and using a detection script to display a warning, something akin to “You are using an outdated web browser. Please download Internet Explorer 7 or Mozilla Firefox,” providing links of course, you could do a lot to help kill IE6.
I’m still a little hesitant to drop IE6 support, because of it’s marketshare, but I think something needs to be done this time around. IE5 took far too long to die, and it’s still not quite there yet. Microsoft needs to get their act together and force people to upgrade (but then you in into the problem of IE7 not running on Win2k, which people still use, annoyingly) or we need to force people to upgrade by no longer supporting it.
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As with all things, IE6 will always be alive as long as somebody supports them and I really wish you would stop that. I wish everybody would stop that.
Even after reading what you wrote, I don’t understand why you are cutting some slack to that 25%.
You are a designer and the one point we both agree on is that IE6 should be gone. I don’t think your actions to get rid of it are enough. In fact, no matter how far you go, your actions alone won’t be enough. That 25% also needs to take action. If they are stuck with IE6, they should do something about it.
Forgetting about the 25% is an oxymoron. I have stopped supporting IE6 on my website and I am not ignoring that 25%. I am saying “Update or be left behind”.
In the words of Chris Pirillo, even though I am not such a fan: “Tools and technologies evolve, and you either evolve as well or you die”. Not updating after 7 years? Which part of that makes any sense?
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It’s curious to me that this thread seems to be made up of people who live in bubbles, probably me included. The web is not made up of us, the web elite, we are probably a small percentage (people who design and develop websites) of the populace, and to say “I am going to force the population to switch because it makes my life easier, and I know better anyways since I’m a professional!” seems a bit cocky and presumptuous. It’s not our job, I don’t think, to force other peoples hand, to shift the tide, it is our job to create sites for all our users, those with IE6, those with eyesight problems, those who use keyboards to navigate. Although I loathe IE6 just like everybody else, let’s be real about today: Safari still has an under 10% share, while Opera is less than that, and although we all know these are superior browsers, users have chosen that they don’t care.
Of course it matters what you’re building, some sites can ignore IE6, but my point I guess is that it’s not our job to force people to adopt technologies which we, as the web elite, have decided will be best for them, it’s not our call. It is our calling to build sites that everyone can enjoy, and take as much time as possible to make sure that happens.
* stands down from the soap box*
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“Sure, they might be easier to develop for, but does that really matter? Isn’t that just developers being lazy?”
Are you kidding? I have to factor in about 3 to 4 days to hack a site to work in IE6 at the end of every major site build. Now this doesn’t make a difference to my employer as they factor that in and charge the client but do I really want to waste 3 or 4 days trying to work out why something perfectly straight forward simply won’t render correctly in IE6?! Not really, thank god for http://www.positioniseverything.net cataloguing all these annoying bugs!
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Well, define “works for IE6″. To me (and I think I can speak for my colleagues too) it goes without saying that our sites should _work_ in IE6.
Do we make CSS that’s visually identical when viewed in modern browsers? No, not every time. Do we make a GIF for every PNG we use? No, sometimes not. But we don’t use browser sniffing, user agent sniffing or Javascript that would make the sites “not working” in IE6.
That’s not being lazy, that’s being professional and profitable.
cheers,
/Anton
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I totally agree with you. For a web developer IE6 support is an added value, it’s the way to offer a better service to clients.
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When St George went to slay the Dragon did he go up to the cave and ask it to maybe curb the maiming and slaughtering for a few years or maybe give it a pipe & slippers and ask the beast to retire harmlessly to the Costa del Sol? No. I think it’s time we put aside the ethically politically-correct nanny-state warm & fuzzy stuff and vote for some slaying. By all means make the site degrade gracefully but I like the idea of some kind of pop-up message saying “your browser has expired & gone to meet its maker so please join us in this millennium and upgrade to something decent”. I mean, surely even Microsoft is cringing with embarrassment that 25% of users still use IE6…
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Realize that large corporate institutions rely on applications that might have been built, a year or two or more. I work for a large medical group and multiple applications have issues with newer browsers because of a change in the way they handle SSL & Security. They are waiting on a major software developer to update the software to be able to use the new technology.
A lot of technology folks put a lot of value on moving forward, but don’t understand why folks are still on the older technology, much in the same way there is no focus on accessibility in many web projects.
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Some of the points mentioned here are dead-on. I hate IE6 too, but I simply cannot decide to stop supporting it because I prefer another (admittedly better) browser. My only complaint is that I tend to be less overly-creative with my designs so that I don’t have to spend 3-4 days hacking IE workarounds in my CSS. I just use what I know works for everyone and simply expect that IE6 will display some inconsistencies. I still use conditional comments to serve IE6 workarounds when needed. One of the major bugs for me is image replacement techniques (Gilder-Levin typically) on navigation which work wonderfully in every browser but IE6 and displays a little “glitch” when viewed in IE6.
I just give up on “pixel perfection” and realize that IE6 is, well, buggy at best. If the user wants and/or needs to use IE6 then they will simply have to live with a minimally-degraded experience. The content is still readable and the site still usable, but there may be some little glitches here and there, but nothing that makes the site unusable.
And browser sniffing? That is so 1999. What happens when a new browser comes out like Google Chrome or something entirely different? Yes, it sucks to have to deal with IE6, but as a professional you have to roll with the punches. Just my 2px.
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I have a day job where I have no choice to use IE6. As an IE6 user then I wish more people would step up and declare it dead. IT departments may have a good reason not to upgrade but a massive part of that justification is that everything still works, so people don’t complain about it.
If a few high profile sites stoped supporting it then the users would push their IT departments to at least consider it.
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Could it be that almost all of that 25% of people are web designers/developers testing our sites? Could we be the ones keeping IE6 alive?
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Lazy?! You must be trying to get a rise out of people with that one..
Designers and Developers are business people - wasting time is not smart. It costs us money. If a client insists that a site work in IE6 exactly like all the good browsers, it should cost more - because IE6 doesn’t work like all the good browsers. More work, more time, more money.
Most times, clients are willing to accept a reasonable facsimile of the site in IE6. For me, the most logical approach is using conditional comments to present a dumb-downed version for dumb browsers. Seems to work well, saves tons of time, and most “regulars” don’t even know the difference.
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Well, it does appear the IE6 is definitely on the outs. Most of my sites drop a significant number of IE6 users each month (also true here). My personal site only has about 12% on IE6. I still develop for it though, although the next iteration of a number of sites will not include support. There are other, nagging ways to go about getting people to upgrade, like the End6! campaign that I started. In addition to that, I always have the latest version of Firefox on my flash drive to install on someone’s machine, although for folks on slow connections (who are often the ones not upgrading), Firefox 3 can be a problem.
Hudin
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I was sort of moved to write-up a little piece, helping to usher in the eminent demise of the oft-maligned and rightly so, non-conformist to web standards browser. Linked the article as my homepage. Alas, anyone running IE6 probably is not reading a design blog, and is probably doing nothing these days but going to facebook, because they think that is the “real” internet, and suffice it to think a facebook page is a substitute for a leading-edge website to be viewed in a leading-edge browser.
So fire-up the defibrillator and give that IE6 another zap to debug your latest works. Let’s just hope the ol; boy can take it, lol, lol. R.i.P
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Facebook actually helped the case by prompting all of its users to upgrade to IE7 a while back.
I think it’s important to realise that this is not just about ‘trivial site aesthetics’…it’s about sustaining the momentum of progress across the entire Internet landscape!
New browsers bring with them new chances for developements and functionality. And by forcing users to upgrade, we’re forcing the web to ‘upgrade’ - looking forward, that can only be a good thing.
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The problem I see is we’re going about it all wrong. “We should support IE6 because so many use it.” Did you check stats on IE5 and hold the same arguments that we need to support them because they hadn’t updated yet?
People are just *dying* to tout “I support IE6″ instead of saying “Yes, I will support IE6, but if you drop support, you’ll save money and time by asking your users to upgrade.”
It’s a matter of no one has taken the time to come up with a study (or information) of the costs of supporting IE6 - the hazards, the flaws, the costs in fixing IE6 specific bugs.
No one wants to “be the one” and instead wants to point out “so many people use it - it’d e wrong to ask them to upgrade for a better experience” - well, we do tell people this every day.
“Maybe it’s time you traded in your tank and get something a little more economical.”
“Maybe you should eat healthier and work out a bit.”
“Maybe you should vote with your head and not your political party.”
“Maybe you should buy American.”
See where I’m going? Non-stop inundating, but no one wants to stand up and go back to the (omg, nielsen unapproved) “You need to upgrade your browser.”
Enough coddling. People need to be lead, the majority *does not* constitute some right that we shouldn’t tell them what to do.
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You don’t have to support Safari or Opera because they render pretty much exactly like Firefox, which means they don’t require any extra work - so you can’t compare them to IE6.
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After finding that IE6 could no longer render SlashDot correctly, I recently ‘upgraded’ from IE6 to Firefox only to find that I was unable to order my groceries from Tesco.com; Firefox kept asking to save all the ‘.asp’ pages rather than render them! Therefore, I ‘upgraded’ again to IE7 and found the user interface dreadful and (relatively) uncustomisable. In addtion IE7, like Vista, is really sloooooooow. Consequently I’m back to IE6. Long live IE6!
Why is new software so bad? Because it’s too complicated, that’s why. And don’t get me started on new hardware. Widescreen? I think you mean less tall!
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I see my comments in support of IE6 were unwelcome. Warning to others, don’t post anything positive about IE6 as it will be deleted!
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What’s going on here? When I posted on the 15/10/8 my message of 14/10/8 wasn’t visible, that is not until I posted my warning. Apologies, this is a balanced, if quirky, Website.
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Bailsoft, that’s not true at all. It just got caught in the spam filter for some reason, that’s all.
Thanks for commenting!
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can’t do this in a paid job, but maybe if every designer added this piece at the beginning of each style sheet of his own pages…
* { border:666px;}
only works in (lte) ie6.
[change the value to lower numbers to see what's happening]