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Ask YC: Would YC.Newsers try a web service that works only on IE?
If currently a web site doesn't support Firefox/Safari/Opera would you still try it out?
- robmnl 19y agoNo, I'm on a mac, don't have access to IE. It's definitely ok to release an alpha that only works in a certain browser, but make sure you tell people, and be prepared to cut some people off.
- ivankirigin 19y agowhat, you wouldn't use Parallels just to use windows to use IE to try the service?!
- pg 19y agoIt's not so much a question of would as could. I'd have to install IE first. And it would take a lot to make me do that.
- eusman 19y agoI suppose this will be the general reaction here. If it's possible we could we have of an insight to YC.news stats of what the majority uses here, I guess Firefox/Safari wins over IE?
- davidw 19y agoYou are of course in an enviable position... I would hope that most people actually working on a web site use something like Wine to be able to test it in IE. No way do I use it one minute more than I have to, though.
- cstejerean 19y agoI almost never test things in IE. I'm counting most of the time on the JS libraries I use to be cross platform and defer to a JS guru when some IE only bug shows up. Most of the time one of the many other people that have to look at a prototype will be running IE and report an issue. It's not worth it for me to bother (is it possible to run IE7 in Linux now? IE6 is obsolete).
- juanpablo 19y agoI run Windows in a virtual machine in Linux to test things. Sure, if you use some library like JQuery or Mootools most of the time your javascript will be cross-platform. But what about the CSS? Of course IE6 is obsolete (since v0.1 of Firefox-Firebird), but that depends of your target market.
- cstejerean 19y agoI was actually referring to Microsoft dropping support for IE6. Even though IE6 market share is still high with no Windows Genuine Advantage requirements for IE7 some sites are dropping support for IE6 and requiring IE6 users to upgrade to IE7.
- xirium 19y agoRunning IE precludes an operating system and hardware on which it runs. If you asked about developing for Firefox only then I'd strongly recommend it. This browser can be run on many operating systems. Most importantly, early adopters who are likely to use this browser are more likely to be an early adopter of your service. For the same reason, I'd recommend developing a Firefox plugin rather than an IE plugin.
- mixmax 19y ago>"If you asked about developing for Firefox only then I'd strongly recommend it." I know that this is a tech site, and that I am probably get modded down for saying this: But that is absolutely ridicolous. Basically what you are doing if you are only developing for firefox is opening a shop where you only let 10% of your customeres through the door. The rest will have to go home, or go to you competition. I mean, seriously... Business 101 guys ;-)
- cstejerean 19y agoNo, the other option is for your customers to install Firefox. Now this isn't always something you can demand/expect of your users. But for example for a free service or during a beta period it's perfectly reasonable. Most IE market share is not early adoption friendly. If they wouldn't fear new technology they would be on Firefox already. Either they never heard of Firefox or don't want to try it out. Neither one is a quality that indicates early adopter.
- greendestiny 19y agoI actually considered doing the web application I'm doing at the moment as firefox only, purely because it heavily relied on SVG. It's very much a niche market where my competitors are desktop applications, and it will be a fairly expensive subscription service so it didn't seem unreasonable to demand users download firefox. Eventually though I just came to realise that the biggest advantage of the web was the ability to have anyone come to my site and be ready to use the product. So in the end I've gone with flash.
- kajecounterhack 19y agoI would not! Though I could use my IE for Wine, why would I go through the trouble just to visit a site? If they're not going to cater to me as an Ubuntu user, then they can count me out of their target population. Its like what paul said, except for me, even though I technically "can," I won't go through the extra trouble.
- phuego 19y agoIf it didn't support any browser than IE, I'd pass. Those guys are digging themselves a hole if it is dependant on IE centric code from day one.
- eusman 19y agoit's not much of being IE centric as to designing an api first and insteaad of losing time on stupid JS/DOM dependancies (things you can fix later for less cost), just get it maybe to most users for whom IE is the internet.
- sarvesh 19y agoYour assumption that it costs less to fix later is incorrect. It will probably cost you more.
- bouncingsoul 19y agoIf you think your audience is primarily IE users than you can make a decision to just support IE. But you asked Hacker News. For the people here I'm sure IE is a last choice browser.
- cstejerean 19y agoIIRC there are more IE related JS/DOM bugs than Firefox ones. In FF you also have Firebug which makes development less painful. So why would it help to make an IE version only first? The only reason I can think is if you're using ASP.NET and the funky HTML generation that it and Visual Studio do.
- lanej0 19y agoSure... are you providing the Windows machine to test it? I'll send you my shipping address. C'mon. What is it, ActiveX, or does the layout just break horribly in a proper web browser?
- walesmd 19y agoProbably not. The only time IE gets run is when I need to test a design. Your service would really have to offer something amazing that I simply could not live without and that there were no competitors. So far, I haven't found a single service like that.
- bayareaguy 19y agoNo.
- alaskamiller 19y agoWould Y Combinator fund a company that makes a plugin to one kind of mail client?
- rokhayakebe 19y agoxobni or inbox backwards
- bootload 19y ago"... If currently a web site doesn't support Firefox/Safari/Opera would you still try it out? ..." What no Lynx support? No way man. Wouldn't touch it with a pole.
- rokhayakebe 19y agouser pleeeease
- pc 19y agoNot a chance.
- ivankirigin 19y agoIE only isn't a web service ... it's crippled desktop software. My last company used an EXTREMELY expensive service called Windchill. It was used because CVS was free, worked cross platform, and relatively bug free. Fractal wrong, so to speak. Windchill only comes available through IE. That meant that the 1/2 of the company on linux boxes needed dual boot machines to use it.
- s3graham 19y agoNope.
- nextmoveone 19y agoif i heard enough about it or it interested me i would try it. but i doubt i would use it, firefox and safari are my browsers of choice .
- thorax 19y agoYeah, if it was cool enough, I'd try it out in IE.
- nreece 19y agoWill I try it out on IE, sure! Will I use it on IE on a regular basis, not so sure! What's the big deal with making it cross-browser, unless you are thinking of a short-cut?
- brlewis 19y agoSure, why not? IE spits out a lot of warning messages in my gnome terminal, but aside from that WINE seems to be working just fine. What's the URL?
- boucher 19y agoI don't usually try anything out that doesn't work in Safari, unless I have a vested interest in doing so. Of course, that often means that Google products aren't useable for a year or so after they launch...
- dawnerd 19y agoNo.
- icky 19y agoNope. If it were really compelling, I'd turn on the user-agent switcher plugin and pretend to be running IE. ;-) If you absolutely must target a proprietary platform, make it Flash.
- streblo 19y agono. i don't have IE and i never intend on installing it.
- hollerith 19y agoI'd have to install Windows or buy a Mac. And it would take a lot to make me do that.
- mightybyte 19y agoSince I don't use IE...no.
- initself 19y agoNo.