Stop beating a dead browser: IE6 is really dead, folks

Posted on November 7, 2010 @ 1:33pm by Patrick Shannon

This is in no way an obituary for Internet Explorer 6. Doing that would be like reporting today that Michael Jackson had died. While I'm sure there are hermits who haven't heard that news yet, it's just as certain that some people are still wondering whether the time has come to drop IE6 or not. Just when you think it's time to finally put IE6 in the dust, you get the odd client/company who "insists" that their customer-base is still primarily using the browser.

While developers know the trials of dealing with IE6, let me explain to the general audience why IE6 is so troublesome. Imagine that all the web browsers out there are calculators that you've punched the equation "7+6" into. The Firefox calculator returns "13," as does the Safari and Chrome calculator. The IE8 calculator returns "13" but has a display glitch, but easy enough to deal with. The IE7 calculator returns "14," but you figure it's close enough. However, the IE6 calculator's display flickers, glitches and throws the answer nearly off the screen, but you can make out a sum of "54." But nevermind proper mathematics, it maintains it's sum is correct because it still claims to be the most popular calcuator out there.

It's a silly sounding analogy, but developing for IE6 is a lot like that, requiring lots of hacks and workarounds to make things work that other browsers handle with no issues. Aside from that, IE6 is highly insecure and even Microsoft has recommended that users upgrade to a newer version of it's browser.

Most people have moved onto newer versions of Internet Explorer or other alternatives like Firefox, Safari and Chrome. So why is IE6 still out there? There are a few reasons, one in particular is users running older computers who never bothered to upgrade. The other popular culprits are companies who have outdated intranets that only work with IE6, thus they lock down the computers so they can't be upgraded.

However, the number of people still running IE6 is dwindling fast. New computers purchased today running Windows 7 come with Internet Explorer 8 installed by default. As for the argument about supporting aging company networks, there isn't anything stopping the IT departments from installing Firefox or Chrome alongside IE6. And some companies may be FORCED to update soon: an IT guy at a company I worked at recently was telling me Microsoft would no longer be supporting them past next year unless they updated.

As far as my official stance, I will only support browsers made within the last four years or so, and only one or two versions down. Currently I support Internet Explorer 7 and 8, but with IE9 coming out soon, I will be dropping support for IE7 at that time. There are a few exceptions where I will support an outdated browser, but this comes with higher development costs and the understanding that not all site functionality will be supported.

As far as the rest of the web, the big dogs like Youtube, Google and Facebook have already dropped support for IE6, which says a whole lot about the answer to the question of whether it's time to stop supporting IE6. While there are still a few out there who are using it, it is important to focus on the experience for the majority first and foremost. Remember, while Aunt Erma might not see your site correctly, is she your majority audience?