5 ms·

Maybe you could turn this idea into a new monetization technique for content websites. Free for most, but IE 6 users have to pay to view your content.

• tmlee 16y ago
  but the underlying problem is that IE6s are still sticking in big enterprise/workplace where they do not have a choice of uninstalling it.
  • WillyF 16y ago
    And big enterprises are places with deep pockets. They'd happily pay the IE6 tax. I'm not really serious about the idea, but the idea of taxing users of outdated software could lead to some pretty interesting applications.
    • swombat 16y ago
      The enterprises wouldn't decide to pay the IE tax. The decision would have to be made by the end-users forced to use IE6. And they wouldn't pay.
      • jcromartie 16y ago
        Then offer an IP-range license deal for them.
      • ricardo 16y ago
        End users at large enterprise companies have zero say in the support browsers of that organization. These policies are put in place by their IT organization which in some cases manages all applications and patches that are pushed down to an individual's machines. In those large companies even Windows patches are managed in house and not through the standard Windows update process. I think those companies will easily stomach an additional charge for IE6 since they're used to paying for everything else. That said, I'm sure they'll use their size to attempt to negotiate themselves a better price.
        • swombat 16y ago
          Have you ever tried to make a sale to this sort of company? It'll take three years before they even bother to react.
          • ricardo 16y ago
            Thankfully no, but given the speed those companies move I wouldn't be surprised if IE6 is still there, 3 years later.
  • brazzy 16y ago
    Actually, the biggest pool of IE6 users are people from poor countries running pirated copies of Windows XP with no access to automatic updates.
    • njharman 16y ago
      They have access to Firefox's and Chrome's automatic updates!
      • pbz 16y ago
        Just because they have a pirated version of XP doesn't mean they heard about Firefox or Chrome.
      • brazzy 16y ago
        Just like everywhere else, they'll use what comes with the OS.
    • sudonim 16y ago
      I hadn't heard this before. Do you have data to support that claim?
      • brazzy 16y ago
        Here's the article I remembered: http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/08/aye-pirates-be-reason-ie6-just-wont-die.html http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/08/aye-pirates-be-reason-ie6-ju... Interestingly, some specific countries (namely the Phillipines and Indonesia) have a much lower IE6 usage than their equally poor neighbours, due to a very high market share of Firefox.
        • kijinbear 16y ago
          Another interesting fact: Both Taiwan (40%) and South Korea (43%) have piracy rates comparable to Singapore (37%), but 5-6 times more IE6 users (32-38% vs 6%). The correlation is not particularly strong there. Other factors might be at play. In South Korea, for example, all payment gateways and government portals are required by law to have certain "security features", which can only be implemented as an ActiveX control. (Good luck with security!) That explains the 94%+ IE adoption rate. Also, all those ActiveX controls break every time a new version of IE comes out, so users are understandably reluctant to move away from IE6. In fact, I've heard rumors that the only reason IE8 still supports ActiveX is that the South Korean government specifically requested it. Of course, China and India together totally skew the statistics. Each of them is bigger than everybody else combined.
  • tsycho 16y ago
    TL;DR => Most users in large enterprises cannot get rid of IE6 even if they want to. I working for a large company (100,000+ employees) in the US and we are stuck with IE6. We cannot uninstall or upgrade it without admin rights, which 99% of employees do not have. A small minority of tech-savvy employees use Chrome or Firefox, but this is heavily frowned upon. Once when my hard disk crashed, our internal tech support team tried to blame the fact that I use Firefox instead of IE6 as the reason.
    • drivingmenuts 16y ago
      Then your company needs to fire their tech team en masse and hire some up-to-date techies.
      • eitally 16y ago
        You'd be shocked at how much very expensive enterprise software has never been updated to support anything newer than IE6. It's not that enterprises don't want to upgrade their users, but that their hands are largely tied (hooray for Chrome Frame!).
    • armandososa 16y ago
      Everytime somebody says this is a good enough reason to support IE6 my only thought is "screw enterprise users".
      • eli 16y ago
        Which works great, unless they're part of your target market. Is the cost of supporting IE6 worth hanging on to those impressions/sales? That's a call you've got to make on a case-by-case basis.