11 ms·

Microsoft made their own IE6-countdown site.

496 points by Klonoar 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- hinathan 16y ago
  Or there's a lot of pirated Windows XP running in China.
code_duck 16y ago
I hope Microsoft has learned lessons from how difficult it has been to get people to stop using IE6. Mainly, they need to make it easier to upgrade IE. IE needs to be a standalone application that can be upgraded easily without the risk of breaking everything.
- dreamux 16y ago
  The problem is enterprises, not consumers.
  - ThomPete 16y ago
    Exactly! Man the stories I could tell.... Even non-tech savy consumers get's their browsers updated once they buy a new machine. But enterprise on the other hand. Boy is that a different story. They will on purpose maintain IE6 for as long as they can because they simply cannot even begin to deal with the support issues when switching. If you want to make a lot of money on a one off. Develop a method for large enterprise to switch without the headache.
- nas 16y ago
  They need to learn a lesson about wantonly pushing proprietary technology when perfectly fine standardized solutions already exist. I suspect they haven't learned anything though. I was going to write something about hoping those developers choke on a bucket of something but decided better of it. ;-) I'm a little pissed after years of fighting with web sites that require Internet Explorer because the developers were retards and used some proprietary MSIE shit.
  - yuhong 16y ago
    >They need to learn a lesson about wantonly pushing proprietary technology when perfectly fine standardized solutions already exist. I suspect they haven't learned anything though. I think they did learn. Keep in mind that back in IE4/5 era when most of that stuff was created, they were competing against Netscape 4.
    - defroost 16y ago
      If they did learn anything, it has been a slow process. The <canvas> tag for example, was introduced in Safari 1.3 and has been supported in Firefox since 1.5, Opera since version 9, and in all versions of Chrome. Contrast that with IE. The <canvas> tag is not supported by IE until version 9. If you want to do any cool <canvas> graphics in versions before 9, you'll have to use something like ExplorerCanvas at http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/ http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/, which of course mean more conditional IE comments in you HTML, and more pain for web developers.
      - yuhong 16y ago
        That is because they didn't catch up that far until version 9.
dreamux 16y ago
I blame customers for poor adoption, not developers. Its obvious that MSFT would prefer all of their customers update to the newest versions of their software.
- estel 16y ago
  Whilst I broadly agree with you, MSFT locking XP out of IE9 would evidence some of the blame being shiftable back to them.
  - gloob 16y ago
    Microsoft producing new software for Windows XP is like Apple doing the same for OS9.
    - streptomycin 16y ago
      Windows XP is the most popular OS in the world. 41% market share. OS 9 is a rounding error. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_system...
      - gloob 16y ago
        There are a few possible reasons for Microsoft to put IE9 on Windows XP that I can imagine. The first ones that come to mind (all hypothetical, incidentally): (1) it would, somehow, earn them money, (2) they have contractual obligations to do it, or (3) they get their giggles from updating a decade-old operating system. 1 seems unlikely. 2 also seems unlikely, since if they had a legal obligation to put IE9 on XP, they would probably be putting IE9 on XP. 3 seems deeply implausible. I suggest that the largest group of people who care about this is not users or companies but web developers. If this is true, then Microsoft has no motive to put IE9 on Windows XP, and plenty of motives not to.
        pbhjpbhj 16y ago
        >"[...]a few possible reasons for Microsoft to put IE9 on Windows XP that I can imagine." How about demonstrating that they care about UX of current users. They care about good internet experience and they care that their users don't have to use someone else’s free software to still have a vaguely secure and usable internet experience. Or simply just as an opportunity to showcase MS's improvements to their apps and demonstrate the great benefits (ahem) to updating to newer versions of other apps. It could also be a ready advertising opportunity in many countries, have the homepage fixed to an MS page with upgrade offers and info if you're on a legacy OS version. Lastly as a way to softarm Bing as being the default search engine of millions of business users. Why not design it to work on XP, OSX and Linux from the off? The other browser makers seem to manage it. Perhaps they secretly feel they can't contend in the browser space?
kenjackson 16y ago
Interesting... if you get rid of China and S. Korea, IE6 is probably less then 5%. I think IE6 is close to becoming a footnote. With IE9 not supporting XP, I'd love to see MS recommend FF4 or Chrome for XP users, although frankly I don't think it would matter... if you're still on XP a modern web browser is the last thing on your mind.
- larrik 16y ago
  "If you're still on XP a modern web browser is the last thing on your mind." I call BS. Tons of people are still on XP and see no reason to switch. Both corporate and non-corporate alike. XP was selling new licenses at least through last summer (last time I purchased brand new, name brand computers with XP pre-installed.) Those actually counted as Win7 sales from M$ perspective, though.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    If you're using an OS that is a 10 year old walking security nightmare, I have trouble believing that you also are thinking, "I want to use the modern web". It's like being in the midst of being mugged and wondering, "did I have 3 square meals today?" Sure eating well is important, but using an outdated insecure OS really should be top of mind. And if you bought XP last summer... well that was your call. XP was acceptable in 2002. It's 2011.
    - Aqwis 16y ago
      Come on, have you even used XP since 2002? It is not a "security nightmare" if used (or set up) by someone with a minimal amount of knowledge about computer security. These days, with Microsoft's free Security Essentials package, virtually everyone has a decent security package, for example.
      - kenjackson 16y ago
        Virus protection is just one vector. WinXP doesn't have several of the security features in newer versions of Windows. And even those it does have aren't as good. Such as buffer overflow protection was updated in Win7, but not since XPSP2 for XP. It's fundamentally less secure top to bottom. Which is why there is exist many vulnerabilities that exist on XP, but not Win7. UPDATE: For a concrete example, see http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2009/03/20/enhanced-gs-in-visual-studio-2010.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2009/03/20/enhanced-g... -- added as a result of http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.... . There are a plethora of these sorts of things that architecturally make Win7 different than XP when it comes to security.
zdw 16y ago
I'm guessing there's a high correlation between people running non-legit copies of Windows and IE 6 users.
- bigwally 16y ago
  The high correlation is caused by default installs that are used in internet cafes. And, in China, most probably non-legit.
- listic 16y ago
  Why do you think so?
  - zdw 16y ago
    "Genuine advantage" often breaks updates on any non-legit copy of Windows. Updates to IE usually come through Windows Update. Non-legit Windows is in 2nd place and has larger market share than all other non-MS OS's, per this: http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Competitor_than_Apple http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Compe...
    - listic 16y ago
      Last time I checked, "Genuine advantage" validation was not required for installing newer IE, as well as critical updates. It was, for a time, but then Microsoft let installing never versions of IE regardless of Genuine advantage. The linked article doesn't provide any evidence for correlation of pirated Windows and outdated Windows(or IE).
      - galadriel 16y ago
        True, but pirated Windows does not allows you to update automatically, and does not updates IE for you. Now, one can always download newer IE from Microsoft's website and manually install it, but chances of that happening are low.
        16y ago
joelackner 16y ago
who chose those colors? unknown & 1-5 % are practically the same, out of order and make it next to impossible to glance over the map without reading the numbers.
- alokm 16y ago
  i agree the green color is in between them. The color should be in a gradient proportional to the percentage, and unknown obviously does not fit on that scale. It should be off the gradient.
phillco 16y ago
Aha! ie7countdown.com and ie8countdown.com are still available!
- utkarshkukreti 16y ago
  Not anymore. Someone registered 7, 8 and even 9.
  - sewerhorse 16y ago
    ie11countdown.com is still available though :p
rodh 16y ago
This might just be me, but when I scan over a map, my automatic action is to hover my mouse over the countries I'm looking at (I do the same with my finger when I look at a physical map). If I do that here though, the map disappears. I can't stop myself from doing it. It's driving me nuts.
- beaumartinez 16y ago
  It loads an image over it (which took a while, at least on my machine): http://ie6countdown.com/images/030311-mapList.png http://ie6countdown.com/images/030311-mapList.png
  - rodh 16y ago
    Yes. Sorry, that's what I meant by disappear. Would have preferred it if they found another way of presenting that list to me.
  - demodifier 16y ago
    Heh. Same this happened to me. Took so much time to load that I thought there was something wrong. Clicked on your link and the image/link was cached. Now, it shows up instantaneously when I mouse over in the main site.
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  MS design, awesome ignorance of UIs since 1985.
rudiger 16y ago
Anyone know the story behind IE6's huge presence in Asia (especially China)? Why haven't they upgraded? Is it because Windows XP is still very popular? If so, why? Also, is there a popular "native-land" browser, the way Xunlei is the most popular BitTorrent client in the world?
- OstiaAntica 16y ago
  I'm guessing that there are two factors: 1. tons of pirated intalls that can't be upgraded and 2. botnets from China that over-represent the amount actual ie6 traffic
  - xpaulbettsx 16y ago
    In Korea specifically, there's a huge ActiveX site base still, especially for government and banking sites.
    - zdw 16y ago
      Some background: Korea historically required SEED for encryption, not SSL, which prevented competition in the browser market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEED http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEED
    - Elepsis 16y ago
      This would certainly explain the market share of IE in general, but IE 7, 8 and 9 each support ActiveX as well, so I can't imagine that alone is a factor.
  - shii 16y ago
    I'm also guessing Maxthon[1] has a large browser share in China and you'll notice that MSIE6 is in its userstring[2], which could possibly be diluting the results for pure IE6 instead of those with the same engine (Trident[3]). [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxthon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxthon [2]: http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Maxthon_version_.php http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Maxthon_version_.php [3]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(layout_engine)
kevinburke 16y ago
Wondering why the site's in English.
- chollida1 16y ago
  What language do you think the default should be for a .com site?
  - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
    The default for Microsoft's .com sites should probably be the user set browser language. If not the default then a prominent "change to $language" dropdown with the sniffed browser lang as a list-top shortcut.
    - chollida1 16y ago
      That makes sense! I wish the down voters would have specified that rather than down-voting an honest question:)
Aqwis 16y ago
Some errors: - Turkey is purple on the map, despite being within the 1-5% (blue) bracket. - According to the map, Finland has 0.7% IE6 users, but according to the list you get when you hover over the map, it has 0.9% That aside, it puzzles me that the numbers in East Asia are that high. South Korea and Japan are both wealthy countries with a large number of Internet users. Even if we exclude North America and Western Europe, Eastern Europe does far better, for instance, than South Korea and Japan.
- bzbarsky 16y ago
  IE market share in general is higher in East Asia, for a few reasons: 1) In the case of S. Korea, until recently ActiveX was required to do any internet banking (required by law, iirc). 2) Trident is the only major rendering engine that supports vertical text. This is not a big deal for Western users, but might be for East Asia. I can't speak to the relative market share of IE6 inside the IE slice of the usage pie, though....
jsdalton 16y ago
I think this is great, personally. The only things more I'd wish for from this site: * It'd be great if it was more clear that Microsoft itself was behind the site (there's just one little logo at the bottom left). * The home page seems targeted at developers. It'd be great if they had another page targeted specifically at end users spelling out in clear terms why a.) it's bad for them to still be using IE6 (e.g. throw some scary warnings about viruses in there) and b.) what they can do about it (e.g. upgrade or install an alternative browser if upgrade not possible.) * Now that I think about it, they need another page like the one above but targeted at enterprises. Again, lay out in clear terms all the horrible reasons for using IE6 on the open Internet. Convince them to install alternative browsers on desktops for general browsing and to restrict the use of IE6 to only those specialized applications which absolutely require it. My wish list is probably already three items too long, so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.
- kprobst 16y ago
  I think it might be too much for Microsoft to say "you have to get rid of this browser" and then "but you have to upgrade your operating system". For the same reason they're not going to promote FF or Chrome, since those run on XP just fine.
  - alecco 16y ago
    Can't they offer IE8 or the rest?
- apgwoz 16y ago
  When in doubt: whois ie6countdown.com (edit: I originally misread your comment as saying, "i don't believe it's Microsoft cause the small logo is unconvincing" -- sorry) Registrant: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Email: domains@microsoft.com Registrar Name....: CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC. Registrar Whois...: whois.corporatedomains.com Registrar Homepage: www.cscprotectsbrands.com Domain Name: ie6countdown.com Created on..............: Fri, Aug 07, 2009 Expires on..............: Tue, Aug 07, 2012 Record last updated on..: Thu, Mar 03, 2011 Administrative Contact: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Phone: +1.4258828080 Email: domains@microsoft.com Technical Contact: Microsoft Corporation MSN Hostmaster One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Phone: +1.4258828080 Email: msnhst@microsoft.com DNS Servers: ns1.msft.net ns4.msft.net ns5.msft.net ns2.msft.net ns3.msft.net
amalcon 16y ago
It's funny if you have scripts turned off. Apparently, 100% of the world was using IE6 in Feb 2011, which is 9% lower than the previous year. Nonetheless, very good to see Microsoft doing stuff like this.
robin_reala 16y ago
There’s an ultimate deadline on dropping IE6 of April 8th, 2014. That’s when XP, and consequently IE6, fall out of support. Continuing to support sites for browsers that aren’t receiving security updates is actively harmful to users and should be avoided wherever possible.
jasonkester 16y ago
And then for the irony: Internet Explorer 9 is only available for Windows 7 and Vista. However, we still recommend you download the latest version of Internet Explorer for XP. Get it here: That's what I see when I click their "Download IE9" link. Looks like we'll get to go through this all again in a few years.
- mrspeaker 16y ago
  That's why I made a more future-proof version of their "Join the cause" banner code: http://www.mrspeaker.net/2011/03/05/ie6-final-countdown/ http://www.mrspeaker.net/2011/03/05/ie6-final-countdown/
  - christoph 16y ago
    It's a shame their banner looks like the sort of thing you click and have malware installed.
- paulirish 16y ago
  IE8 is going to be the IE6 of today, but way way way worse and for much longer. Talk about legacy code. While IE6 has been a pain for 5 years, IE8 will be a pain for 15. We will see a HUGE portion of people not upgrading from WinXP. Really our only solution there is to get them onto a new browser or convince them that this unsuspecting "Chrome Frame" plugin is the right thing to do. We have to, really.
  - loire280 16y ago
    Why will a huge portion of people not upgrade from XP? It's been at long time since you could buy a computer with it preinstalled (unless you specifically ask for it). Hardware attrition, upgrade cycles, and hopefully the end of the global recession should clear out those machines. Any computer that came with XP preinstalled that is still around 15 years later is going to be so slow that an outdated browser is going to be the least of its worries.
    - 16y ago
davidcuddeback 16y ago
I was about to "like" the page, but the like button is for facebook.com/internetexplorer. Liking ie6countdown.com means you like Internet Explorer. That's the opposite effect from what I was expecting.
- netcan 16y ago
  Joseph Heller's Guide to Marketing
- tonyvt2005 16y ago
  Thanks. I actually went through the trouble of going to fb and clicking "Remove Post and Unlike".
elliottcarlson 16y ago
Sadly, 99% of our clients (pharma-sector) are on IE6 due to corporate policy...
JonoW 16y ago
MS really don't help themselves though. My company won't upgrade from IE7 because they are worried about breaking a legacy,critical web-app. If MS could build a feature into IE9 that allowed you to specify a white-list of URLs/domains (set by AD group policy) that always used the IE6/IE7/IE9 renderer/js engine for the tab it was opened in - boom corporates could start upgrading. It's also holding back adoption of Windows 7.
- ejones 16y ago
  That exists, it's called 'Compatibility Mode'. And by default (at least in IE8, at my current client's deployment) it uses it for all Intranet Sites. You can also use meta-tag 'X-UA-Compatible' to force a certain compatibility (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(v=vs.85).as...) EDIT: Apparently the best you can do for IE6 is to 'emulate IE5,' which actually means 'emulate IE7 quirks mode'. Oh well...
  - JonoW 16y ago
    Compatability mode doesn't support ie6, and I believe its only for the renderer, not the JavaScript engine.
    - ejones 16y ago
      Yeah, it doesn't seem to be a complete solution. My client actually ended up deploying a virtualized IE8 to sit alongside IE6 on all workstations.
    - yuhong 16y ago
      It is for the JavaScript engine too: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s4esdbwz(v=VS.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s4esdbwz(v=VS.85).as...
- troels 16y ago
  I suspect it's not quite as easy as that, but you still have a very good point. I wonder why they haven't pursued this path actually - It would be a very Microsoft-ish solution.
markneub 16y ago
Hopefully the notion of developing for IE6 compatibility will soon be as laughable as that of designing for Netscape compatibility.
lovskogen 16y ago
Forget about IE6, countdown to IE7 instead. Still craps up alot of CSS, forcing designers like me to hack around, use graphics instead of CSS, both or create a sub-experience to a large audience.
- troymc 16y ago
  You could just change the start of the HTML snippet from <!--[if lt IE 7]> to <!--[if lt IE 8]> Then IE7 users will also get the banner ("You are using an outdated browser...")
  - dspillett 16y ago
    Unless IE8 is running in IE7 compatibility mode, something you as a web developer can not always control, in which case you have just confused a user or made it look like you don't understand what you are doing (his site says I should run IE8 and I already do, isn't he thick!).
- yuhong 16y ago
  If we countdown to IE8, we will be able to finally use real XHTML and SVG, but it is too early to do it.
mitjak 16y ago
Nobody seems to have asked this yet: where is the data coming from? I find it hard to believe U.S. is at 2.9% IE6 usage, for instance.
- droz 16y ago
  It says right there on the page: www.netapplications.com
Samuel_Michon 16y ago
From the page: "As of February 2011, 12% of the world was using Internet Explorer 6, which was 9% lower than the previous year" They're using NetApps stats. IE6's share was 21 percent in February of 2010, according to those numbers. That means IE6 share has gone down 43 percent in the past year. I'm guessing the author doesn't know the difference between percentages and percentage points.
rsoto 16y ago
While it's a very good thing MS is endorsing this, they are very incongruent. They continuosly state that they love the web, that IE9 will deliver a more beautiful web and all that stuff. But here we are. We have a 10-year old browser that still has a huge 12% global usage. Ok, that was a huge error, the good thing it's that MS is actually doing something, but are they learning from the past? I think they don't. What will IE9 look like in 5 years? I think it will likely be just like IE6-- holding back the web. A little less, but still, barely support for basic CSS3 declarations, struggling with HTML5, no offline web applications, with no history.pushState support, using still old web forms and much more. IE6 was great for its time. We have learned a lot from it, but the one thing everyone gets is that no matter how good you make it, it will get old. That's the real problem, there's no an easy way to upgrade those users or give them an alternative for their needs (like a standalone version for corporative software crapiness). And IE9 is heading in the same direction.
- Legion 16y ago
  Before we get to being stuck on IE9, first we're going to have to survive being stuck on IE8 - the last version of IE supported in XP. One of the reasons for being stuck on IE6 is that it's the last IE supported by Windows 2000 (and there are plenty of Windows 2000 workstations still out there).
hanifvirani 16y ago
A good number of people in the tech world hate MS, at least partially, and IE6 has been one of the influential reasons for this hatred. Till date, a lot of people avoid IE like the plague and even the modern IE browsers have suffered because of the tarnished brand image. People need to understand that IE6 is a decade old browser and heck it was a good browser for its time. People not moving away from the browser has been a bigger cause of pain than MS itself. This is a good initiative by Microsoft.
deleted 16y ago
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- tomkarlo 16y ago
  Maybe older versions of Windows were easier to pirate or more widely pirated, and people avoid upgrading in case they run afoul of anti-piracy measures.
  - ZoFreX 16y ago
    Actually, Windows 7 is significantly easier† to pirate and still get updates than XP and involves far less risk. I won't provide links here, but you can download the ISOs directly from Digital River, guaranteeing that no extra code has snuck its way in and the image is untouched (something that is not the case with most copies on Bittorrent websites, for example). † If you are a geek, that is - you do have to modify the bootloader or your BIOS, but unlike cracks and other activation work-arounds, it keeps working.
rbanffy 16y ago
If anyone wants to do something with it, microsoftcountdown.com is available... edit: it's no longer available.
Legion 16y ago
Fun, but I'd prefer if it were simply "iecountdown.com".
kumarshantanu 16y ago
They should retire IE7 too.
digamber_kamat 16y ago
It would be great if they start the initiatives to take IE7 IE8 and IE9 off the world and scrap any plans to have IE10. Hopefully Google Chrome and Firefox will kill IE10 in the womb itself.
deleted 16y ago
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jgilliam 16y ago
new slogan: Only Communists use IE6
- kmfrk 16y ago
  That could be turned into "Only Communists use IE". Not that I mind the message, but it would bite them in the ass.
- hasenj 16y ago
  That would only resonate with Americans, and according to the site already the usage is below 3% so it's pointless. Plus this kind of slogan implies something along the lines of "Chinese people are evil communists".
comster 16y ago
What a stupid shame.... If MS wanted to get rid of IE6 they should just do it! instead they say... "Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6. And neither should acquaintances. Educate others about moving off of Internet Explorer 6."
GrandMasterBirt 16y ago
#1 Yay #2 Korea and China are only heavy (>5%) ie6 users. Whewh I don't support those languages anyways so YAY DEATH TO IE6.
blahedo 16y ago
It's very confusing and unobvious what the percentages are percents of: the country's percentage of total IE6 users, or the IE6 users' percentage of the country? Based on the fact that they add to >100%, I guess that the per country numbers you get when you hover the map are % of that country still using IE6. But then what are the percents on the ring/pie chart to the side? They don't add to 100%, so they're not percentages of the pie (total IE6 users). But China's percentage there (5.9) doesn't match its percentage in the map (34.5). So, 5.9% of what? This is a terrible infographic.
- fryguy 16y ago
  I agree that it's a bad graphic. I think this is what the numbers mean: On map: percentage of people in that country that use IE6. If there were 300 million people in USA, and 30 million people use IE6 means 10% would show up for USA On ring: percentage of the world population that uses IE6. If the world population was 6 billion, and 30 million people in USA use IE6, then 0.5% would show up in the ring on the right. It would be better if the ring were bigger, and made to show the 88% of the world that doesn't use IE6 as a gray color.
mdink 16y ago
Chinese hackers love IE 6. This would be my guess as to why IE 6 has a higher count there then anywhere else. I don't say this out of spite, our site just uses an exception notification system that floods my inbox with tons of bogus requests from china. They can't all be proxy servers and have a user agent indication IE 6. Just a thought, not meant to be negative...
ashishb4u 16y ago
"Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6"!! (who thought that Microsoft would say this one day)
deleted 16y ago
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aneth 16y ago
The most important insight: unless you are targeting Asia (namely China and Korea,) you can pretty much dump IE6 support as Facebook and Google have done. The US number is under 3%. I'd like to see a breakdown of that 3%, but I'd guess it's mostly public schools and stodgy companies.
AngeloAnolin 16y ago
It says the target is to bring it down to less than 1% worldwide. What happens to the remaining ones?
- burgerbrain 16y ago
  Who cares.
dgallagher 16y ago
One of my friends who is a designer, completely sick of IE6, puts this Javascript on every site he develops: http://ie6update.com/ http://ie6update.com/ Click: Click here to see a demo! -------------------- Recently I finished a CSS book, maybe 500 pages long. About 80 or so pages were dedicated to "and to get this to work in IE6, you have to do this hack." IE7 maybe had 10 pages, and IE8/Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Opera were merely footnotes sprinkled about.
toephu 16y ago
lets get rid of IE7!
ck2 16y ago
IE6 is not Netscape Navigator 4. We'll still have to code for it at least through 2012. Come January 2013 though, all bets are off. Then we'll have the IE7/IE8 bugs until 2020 (thanks Microsoft!)
tomdeal 16y ago
Disclaimer: My experiences are based on the current german web landscape, so I don't know if this is true for other countries. I don't include IE6 anymore in my web pages. If it works, ok, if not, well... too bad. In the last year, no customer ever really wanted to have an IE6 site. The Problem with a site like this from Microsoft is, it is not the normal household PC which is still running IE6. There might be a few, but that number should be close to zero. It is the big companies, who are not switching to a newer version, because they have special software programmed for IE6 with funny activeX elements and big domain stuff behind so they can't simply flip the switch, and if it works, why should they upgrade? They don't want to throw a whole bunch of money at this problem. Thats sad, but you can't do anything about it...
grizzlylazer 16y ago
The only people who visit this page are probably already on a different browser.

496 points by Klonoar 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

hinathan 16y ago
Or there's a lot of pirated Windows XP running in China.

code_duck 16y ago

I hope Microsoft has learned lessons from how difficult it has been to get people to stop using IE6. Mainly, they need to make it easier to upgrade IE. IE needs to be a standalone application that can be upgraded easily without the risk of breaking everything.

dreamux 16y ago
The problem is enterprises, not consumers.
- ThomPete 16y ago
  Exactly! Man the stories I could tell.... Even non-tech savy consumers get's their browsers updated once they buy a new machine. But enterprise on the other hand. Boy is that a different story. They will on purpose maintain IE6 for as long as they can because they simply cannot even begin to deal with the support issues when switching. If you want to make a lot of money on a one off. Develop a method for large enterprise to switch without the headache.
nas 16y ago
They need to learn a lesson about wantonly pushing proprietary technology when perfectly fine standardized solutions already exist. I suspect they haven't learned anything though. I was going to write something about hoping those developers choke on a bucket of something but decided better of it. ;-) I'm a little pissed after years of fighting with web sites that require Internet Explorer because the developers were retards and used some proprietary MSIE shit.
- yuhong 16y ago
  >They need to learn a lesson about wantonly pushing proprietary technology when perfectly fine standardized solutions already exist. I suspect they haven't learned anything though. I think they did learn. Keep in mind that back in IE4/5 era when most of that stuff was created, they were competing against Netscape 4.
  - defroost 16y ago
    If they did learn anything, it has been a slow process. The <canvas> tag for example, was introduced in Safari 1.3 and has been supported in Firefox since 1.5, Opera since version 9, and in all versions of Chrome. Contrast that with IE. The <canvas> tag is not supported by IE until version 9. If you want to do any cool <canvas> graphics in versions before 9, you'll have to use something like ExplorerCanvas at http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/ http://code.google.com/p/explorercanvas/, which of course mean more conditional IE comments in you HTML, and more pain for web developers.
    - yuhong 16y ago
      That is because they didn't catch up that far until version 9.

dreamux 16y ago

I blame customers for poor adoption, not developers. Its obvious that MSFT would prefer all of their customers update to the newest versions of their software.

estel 16y ago
Whilst I broadly agree with you, MSFT locking XP out of IE9 would evidence some of the blame being shiftable back to them.
- gloob 16y ago
  Microsoft producing new software for Windows XP is like Apple doing the same for OS9.
  - streptomycin 16y ago
    Windows XP is the most popular OS in the world. 41% market share. OS 9 is a rounding error. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_system...
    - gloob 16y ago
      There are a few possible reasons for Microsoft to put IE9 on Windows XP that I can imagine. The first ones that come to mind (all hypothetical, incidentally): (1) it would, somehow, earn them money, (2) they have contractual obligations to do it, or (3) they get their giggles from updating a decade-old operating system. 1 seems unlikely. 2 also seems unlikely, since if they had a legal obligation to put IE9 on XP, they would probably be putting IE9 on XP. 3 seems deeply implausible. I suggest that the largest group of people who care about this is not users or companies but web developers. If this is true, then Microsoft has no motive to put IE9 on Windows XP, and plenty of motives not to.
      - pbhjpbhj 16y ago
        >"[...]a few possible reasons for Microsoft to put IE9 on Windows XP that I can imagine." How about demonstrating that they care about UX of current users. They care about good internet experience and they care that their users don't have to use someone else’s free software to still have a vaguely secure and usable internet experience. Or simply just as an opportunity to showcase MS's improvements to their apps and demonstrate the great benefits (ahem) to updating to newer versions of other apps. It could also be a ready advertising opportunity in many countries, have the homepage fixed to an MS page with upgrade offers and info if you're on a legacy OS version. Lastly as a way to softarm Bing as being the default search engine of millions of business users. Why not design it to work on XP, OSX and Linux from the off? The other browser makers seem to manage it. Perhaps they secretly feel they can't contend in the browser space?

kenjackson 16y ago

Interesting... if you get rid of China and S. Korea, IE6 is probably less then 5%. I think IE6 is close to becoming a footnote. With IE9 not supporting XP, I'd love to see MS recommend FF4 or Chrome for XP users, although frankly I don't think it would matter... if you're still on XP a modern web browser is the last thing on your mind.

larrik 16y ago
"If you're still on XP a modern web browser is the last thing on your mind." I call BS. Tons of people are still on XP and see no reason to switch. Both corporate and non-corporate alike. XP was selling new licenses at least through last summer (last time I purchased brand new, name brand computers with XP pre-installed.) Those actually counted as Win7 sales from M$ perspective, though.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  If you're using an OS that is a 10 year old walking security nightmare, I have trouble believing that you also are thinking, "I want to use the modern web". It's like being in the midst of being mugged and wondering, "did I have 3 square meals today?" Sure eating well is important, but using an outdated insecure OS really should be top of mind. And if you bought XP last summer... well that was your call. XP was acceptable in 2002. It's 2011.
  - Aqwis 16y ago
    Come on, have you even used XP since 2002? It is not a "security nightmare" if used (or set up) by someone with a minimal amount of knowledge about computer security. These days, with Microsoft's free Security Essentials package, virtually everyone has a decent security package, for example.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      Virus protection is just one vector. WinXP doesn't have several of the security features in newer versions of Windows. And even those it does have aren't as good. Such as buffer overflow protection was updated in Win7, but not since XPSP2 for XP. It's fundamentally less secure top to bottom. Which is why there is exist many vulnerabilities that exist on XP, but not Win7. UPDATE: For a concrete example, see http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2009/03/20/enhanced-gs-in-visual-studio-2010.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2009/03/20/enhanced-g... -- added as a result of http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.... . There are a plethora of these sorts of things that architecturally make Win7 different than XP when it comes to security.

zdw 16y ago

I'm guessing there's a high correlation between people running non-legit copies of Windows and IE 6 users.

bigwally 16y ago
The high correlation is caused by default installs that are used in internet cafes. And, in China, most probably non-legit.
listic 16y ago
Why do you think so?
- zdw 16y ago
  "Genuine advantage" often breaks updates on any non-legit copy of Windows. Updates to IE usually come through Windows Update. Non-legit Windows is in 2nd place and has larger market share than all other non-MS OS's, per this: http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Competitor_than_Apple http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Compe...
  - listic 16y ago
    Last time I checked, "Genuine advantage" validation was not required for installing newer IE, as well as critical updates. It was, for a time, but then Microsoft let installing never versions of IE regardless of Genuine advantage. The linked article doesn't provide any evidence for correlation of pirated Windows and outdated Windows(or IE).
    - galadriel 16y ago
      True, but pirated Windows does not allows you to update automatically, and does not updates IE for you. Now, one can always download newer IE from Microsoft's website and manually install it, but chances of that happening are low.
      - 16y ago

joelackner 16y ago

who chose those colors? unknown & 1-5 % are practically the same, out of order and make it next to impossible to glance over the map without reading the numbers.

alokm 16y ago
i agree the green color is in between them. The color should be in a gradient proportional to the percentage, and unknown obviously does not fit on that scale. It should be off the gradient.

phillco 16y ago

Aha! ie7countdown.com and ie8countdown.com are still available!

utkarshkukreti 16y ago
Not anymore. Someone registered 7, 8 and even 9.
- sewerhorse 16y ago
  ie11countdown.com is still available though :p

rodh 16y ago

This might just be me, but when I scan over a map, my automatic action is to hover my mouse over the countries I'm looking at (I do the same with my finger when I look at a physical map). If I do that here though, the map disappears. I can't stop myself from doing it. It's driving me nuts.

beaumartinez 16y ago
It loads an image over it (which took a while, at least on my machine): http://ie6countdown.com/images/030311-mapList.png http://ie6countdown.com/images/030311-mapList.png
- rodh 16y ago
  Yes. Sorry, that's what I meant by disappear. Would have preferred it if they found another way of presenting that list to me.
- demodifier 16y ago
  Heh. Same this happened to me. Took so much time to load that I thought there was something wrong. Clicked on your link and the image/link was cached. Now, it shows up instantaneously when I mouse over in the main site.
pbhjpbhj 16y ago
MS design, awesome ignorance of UIs since 1985.

rudiger 16y ago

Anyone know the story behind IE6's huge presence in Asia (especially China)? Why haven't they upgraded? Is it because Windows XP is still very popular? If so, why? Also, is there a popular "native-land" browser, the way Xunlei is the most popular BitTorrent client in the world?

OstiaAntica 16y ago
I'm guessing that there are two factors: 1. tons of pirated intalls that can't be upgraded and 2. botnets from China that over-represent the amount actual ie6 traffic
- xpaulbettsx 16y ago
  In Korea specifically, there's a huge ActiveX site base still, especially for government and banking sites.
  - zdw 16y ago
    Some background: Korea historically required SEED for encryption, not SSL, which prevented competition in the browser market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEED http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEED
  - Elepsis 16y ago
    This would certainly explain the market share of IE in general, but IE 7, 8 and 9 each support ActiveX as well, so I can't imagine that alone is a factor.
- shii 16y ago
  I'm also guessing Maxthon[1] has a large browser share in China and you'll notice that MSIE6 is in its userstring[2], which could possibly be diluting the results for pure IE6 instead of those with the same engine (Trident[3]). [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxthon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxthon [2]: http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Maxthon_version_.php http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Maxthon_version_.php [3]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_(layout_engine)

kevinburke 16y ago

Wondering why the site's in English.

chollida1 16y ago
What language do you think the default should be for a .com site?
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  The default for Microsoft's .com sites should probably be the user set browser language. If not the default then a prominent "change to $language" dropdown with the sniffed browser lang as a list-top shortcut.
  - chollida1 16y ago
    That makes sense! I wish the down voters would have specified that rather than down-voting an honest question:)

Aqwis 16y ago

Some errors: - Turkey is purple on the map, despite being within the 1-5% (blue) bracket. - According to the map, Finland has 0.7% IE6 users, but according to the list you get when you hover over the map, it has 0.9% That aside, it puzzles me that the numbers in East Asia are that high. South Korea and Japan are both wealthy countries with a large number of Internet users. Even if we exclude North America and Western Europe, Eastern Europe does far better, for instance, than South Korea and Japan.

bzbarsky 16y ago
IE market share in general is higher in East Asia, for a few reasons: 1) In the case of S. Korea, until recently ActiveX was required to do any internet banking (required by law, iirc). 2) Trident is the only major rendering engine that supports vertical text. This is not a big deal for Western users, but might be for East Asia. I can't speak to the relative market share of IE6 inside the IE slice of the usage pie, though....

jsdalton 16y ago

I think this is great, personally. The only things more I'd wish for from this site: * It'd be great if it was more clear that Microsoft itself was behind the site (there's just one little logo at the bottom left). * The home page seems targeted at developers. It'd be great if they had another page targeted specifically at end users spelling out in clear terms why a.) it's bad for them to still be using IE6 (e.g. throw some scary warnings about viruses in there) and b.) what they can do about it (e.g. upgrade or install an alternative browser if upgrade not possible.) * Now that I think about it, they need another page like the one above but targeted at enterprises. Again, lay out in clear terms all the horrible reasons for using IE6 on the open Internet. Convince them to install alternative browsers on desktops for general browsing and to restrict the use of IE6 to only those specialized applications which absolutely require it. My wish list is probably already three items too long, so I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

kprobst 16y ago
I think it might be too much for Microsoft to say "you have to get rid of this browser" and then "but you have to upgrade your operating system". For the same reason they're not going to promote FF or Chrome, since those run on XP just fine.
- alecco 16y ago
  Can't they offer IE8 or the rest?
apgwoz 16y ago
When in doubt: whois ie6countdown.com (edit: I originally misread your comment as saying, "i don't believe it's Microsoft cause the small logo is unconvincing" -- sorry) Registrant: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Email: domains@microsoft.com Registrar Name....: CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC. Registrar Whois...: whois.corporatedomains.com Registrar Homepage: www.cscprotectsbrands.com Domain Name: ie6countdown.com Created on..............: Fri, Aug 07, 2009 Expires on..............: Tue, Aug 07, 2012 Record last updated on..: Thu, Mar 03, 2011 Administrative Contact: Microsoft Corporation Domain Administrator One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Phone: +1.4258828080 Email: domains@microsoft.com Technical Contact: Microsoft Corporation MSN Hostmaster One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 US Phone: +1.4258828080 Email: msnhst@microsoft.com DNS Servers: ns1.msft.net ns4.msft.net ns5.msft.net ns2.msft.net ns3.msft.net

amalcon 16y ago

It's funny if you have scripts turned off. Apparently, 100% of the world was using IE6 in Feb 2011, which is 9% lower than the previous year. Nonetheless, very good to see Microsoft doing stuff like this.

robin_reala 16y ago

There’s an ultimate deadline on dropping IE6 of April 8th, 2014. That’s when XP, and consequently IE6, fall out of support. Continuing to support sites for browsers that aren’t receiving security updates is actively harmful to users and should be avoided wherever possible.

jasonkester 16y ago

And then for the irony: Internet Explorer 9 is only available for Windows 7 and Vista. However, we still recommend you download the latest version of Internet Explorer for XP. Get it here: That's what I see when I click their "Download IE9" link. Looks like we'll get to go through this all again in a few years.

mrspeaker 16y ago
That's why I made a more future-proof version of their "Join the cause" banner code: http://www.mrspeaker.net/2011/03/05/ie6-final-countdown/ http://www.mrspeaker.net/2011/03/05/ie6-final-countdown/
- christoph 16y ago
  It's a shame their banner looks like the sort of thing you click and have malware installed.
paulirish 16y ago
IE8 is going to be the IE6 of today, but way way way worse and for much longer. Talk about legacy code. While IE6 has been a pain for 5 years, IE8 will be a pain for 15. We will see a HUGE portion of people not upgrading from WinXP. Really our only solution there is to get them onto a new browser or convince them that this unsuspecting "Chrome Frame" plugin is the right thing to do. We have to, really.
- loire280 16y ago
  Why will a huge portion of people not upgrade from XP? It's been at long time since you could buy a computer with it preinstalled (unless you specifically ask for it). Hardware attrition, upgrade cycles, and hopefully the end of the global recession should clear out those machines. Any computer that came with XP preinstalled that is still around 15 years later is going to be so slow that an outdated browser is going to be the least of its worries.
  - 16y ago

davidcuddeback 16y ago

I was about to "like" the page, but the like button is for facebook.com/internetexplorer. Liking ie6countdown.com means you like Internet Explorer. That's the opposite effect from what I was expecting.

netcan 16y ago
Joseph Heller's Guide to Marketing
tonyvt2005 16y ago
Thanks. I actually went through the trouble of going to fb and clicking "Remove Post and Unlike".

elliottcarlson 16y ago

Sadly, 99% of our clients (pharma-sector) are on IE6 due to corporate policy...

JonoW 16y ago

MS really don't help themselves though. My company won't upgrade from IE7 because they are worried about breaking a legacy,critical web-app. If MS could build a feature into IE9 that allowed you to specify a white-list of URLs/domains (set by AD group policy) that always used the IE6/IE7/IE9 renderer/js engine for the tab it was opened in - boom corporates could start upgrading. It's also holding back adoption of Windows 7.

ejones 16y ago
That exists, it's called 'Compatibility Mode'. And by default (at least in IE8, at my current client's deployment) it uses it for all Intranet Sites. You can also use meta-tag 'X-UA-Compatible' to force a certain compatibility (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288325(v=vs.85).as...) EDIT: Apparently the best you can do for IE6 is to 'emulate IE5,' which actually means 'emulate IE7 quirks mode'. Oh well...
- JonoW 16y ago
  Compatability mode doesn't support ie6, and I believe its only for the renderer, not the JavaScript engine.
  - ejones 16y ago
    Yeah, it doesn't seem to be a complete solution. My client actually ended up deploying a virtualized IE8 to sit alongside IE6 on all workstations.
  - yuhong 16y ago
    It is for the JavaScript engine too: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s4esdbwz(v=VS.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s4esdbwz(v=VS.85).as...
troels 16y ago
I suspect it's not quite as easy as that, but you still have a very good point. I wonder why they haven't pursued this path actually - It would be a very Microsoft-ish solution.

markneub 16y ago

Hopefully the notion of developing for IE6 compatibility will soon be as laughable as that of designing for Netscape compatibility.

lovskogen 16y ago

Forget about IE6, countdown to IE7 instead. Still craps up alot of CSS, forcing designers like me to hack around, use graphics instead of CSS, both or create a sub-experience to a large audience.

troymc 16y ago
You could just change the start of the HTML snippet from <!--[if lt IE 7]> to <!--[if lt IE 8]> Then IE7 users will also get the banner ("You are using an outdated browser...")
- dspillett 16y ago
  Unless IE8 is running in IE7 compatibility mode, something you as a web developer can not always control, in which case you have just confused a user or made it look like you don't understand what you are doing (his site says I should run IE8 and I already do, isn't he thick!).
yuhong 16y ago
If we countdown to IE8, we will be able to finally use real XHTML and SVG, but it is too early to do it.

mitjak 16y ago

Nobody seems to have asked this yet: where is the data coming from? I find it hard to believe U.S. is at 2.9% IE6 usage, for instance.

droz 16y ago
It says right there on the page: www.netapplications.com

Samuel_Michon 16y ago

From the page: "As of February 2011, 12% of the world was using Internet Explorer 6, which was 9% lower than the previous year" They're using NetApps stats. IE6's share was 21 percent in February of 2010, according to those numbers. That means IE6 share has gone down 43 percent in the past year. I'm guessing the author doesn't know the difference between percentages and percentage points.

rsoto 16y ago

While it's a very good thing MS is endorsing this, they are very incongruent. They continuosly state that they love the web, that IE9 will deliver a more beautiful web and all that stuff. But here we are. We have a 10-year old browser that still has a huge 12% global usage. Ok, that was a huge error, the good thing it's that MS is actually doing something, but are they learning from the past? I think they don't. What will IE9 look like in 5 years? I think it will likely be just like IE6-- holding back the web. A little less, but still, barely support for basic CSS3 declarations, struggling with HTML5, no offline web applications, with no history.pushState support, using still old web forms and much more. IE6 was great for its time. We have learned a lot from it, but the one thing everyone gets is that no matter how good you make it, it will get old. That's the real problem, there's no an easy way to upgrade those users or give them an alternative for their needs (like a standalone version for corporative software crapiness). And IE9 is heading in the same direction.

Legion 16y ago
Before we get to being stuck on IE9, first we're going to have to survive being stuck on IE8 - the last version of IE supported in XP. One of the reasons for being stuck on IE6 is that it's the last IE supported by Windows 2000 (and there are plenty of Windows 2000 workstations still out there).

hanifvirani 16y ago

A good number of people in the tech world hate MS, at least partially, and IE6 has been one of the influential reasons for this hatred. Till date, a lot of people avoid IE like the plague and even the modern IE browsers have suffered because of the tarnished brand image. People need to understand that IE6 is a decade old browser and heck it was a good browser for its time. People not moving away from the browser has been a bigger cause of pain than MS itself. This is a good initiative by Microsoft.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

tomkarlo 16y ago
Maybe older versions of Windows were easier to pirate or more widely pirated, and people avoid upgrading in case they run afoul of anti-piracy measures.
- ZoFreX 16y ago
  Actually, Windows 7 is significantly easier† to pirate and still get updates than XP and involves far less risk. I won't provide links here, but you can download the ISOs directly from Digital River, guaranteeing that no extra code has snuck its way in and the image is untouched (something that is not the case with most copies on Bittorrent websites, for example). † If you are a geek, that is - you do have to modify the bootloader or your BIOS, but unlike cracks and other activation work-arounds, it keeps working.

rbanffy 16y ago

If anyone wants to do something with it, microsoftcountdown.com is available... edit: it's no longer available.

Legion 16y ago

Fun, but I'd prefer if it were simply "iecountdown.com".

kumarshantanu 16y ago

They should retire IE7 too.

digamber_kamat 16y ago

It would be great if they start the initiatives to take IE7 IE8 and IE9 off the world and scrap any plans to have IE10. Hopefully Google Chrome and Firefox will kill IE10 in the womb itself.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jgilliam 16y ago

new slogan: Only Communists use IE6

kmfrk 16y ago
That could be turned into "Only Communists use IE". Not that I mind the message, but it would bite them in the ass.
hasenj 16y ago
That would only resonate with Americans, and according to the site already the usage is below 3% so it's pointless. Plus this kind of slogan implies something along the lines of "Chinese people are evil communists".

comster 16y ago

What a stupid shame.... If MS wanted to get rid of IE6 they should just do it! instead they say... "Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6. And neither should acquaintances. Educate others about moving off of Internet Explorer 6."

GrandMasterBirt 16y ago

#1 Yay #2 Korea and China are only heavy (>5%) ie6 users. Whewh I don't support those languages anyways so YAY DEATH TO IE6.

blahedo 16y ago

It's very confusing and unobvious what the percentages are percents of: the country's percentage of total IE6 users, or the IE6 users' percentage of the country? Based on the fact that they add to >100%, I guess that the per country numbers you get when you hover the map are % of that country still using IE6. But then what are the percents on the ring/pie chart to the side? They don't add to 100%, so they're not percentages of the pie (total IE6 users). But China's percentage there (5.9) doesn't match its percentage in the map (34.5). So, 5.9% of what? This is a terrible infographic.

fryguy 16y ago
I agree that it's a bad graphic. I think this is what the numbers mean: On map: percentage of people in that country that use IE6. If there were 300 million people in USA, and 30 million people use IE6 means 10% would show up for USA On ring: percentage of the world population that uses IE6. If the world population was 6 billion, and 30 million people in USA use IE6, then 0.5% would show up in the ring on the right. It would be better if the ring were bigger, and made to show the 88% of the world that doesn't use IE6 as a gray color.

mdink 16y ago

Chinese hackers love IE 6. This would be my guess as to why IE 6 has a higher count there then anywhere else. I don't say this out of spite, our site just uses an exception notification system that floods my inbox with tons of bogus requests from china. They can't all be proxy servers and have a user agent indication IE 6. Just a thought, not meant to be negative...

ashishb4u 16y ago

"Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 6"!! (who thought that Microsoft would say this one day)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

aneth 16y ago

The most important insight: unless you are targeting Asia (namely China and Korea,) you can pretty much dump IE6 support as Facebook and Google have done. The US number is under 3%. I'd like to see a breakdown of that 3%, but I'd guess it's mostly public schools and stodgy companies.

AngeloAnolin 16y ago

It says the target is to bring it down to less than 1% worldwide. What happens to the remaining ones?

burgerbrain 16y ago
Who cares.

dgallagher 16y ago

One of my friends who is a designer, completely sick of IE6, puts this Javascript on every site he develops: http://ie6update.com/ http://ie6update.com/ Click: Click here to see a demo! -------------------- Recently I finished a CSS book, maybe 500 pages long. About 80 or so pages were dedicated to "and to get this to work in IE6, you have to do this hack." IE7 maybe had 10 pages, and IE8/Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Opera were merely footnotes sprinkled about.

toephu 16y ago

lets get rid of IE7!

ck2 16y ago

IE6 is not Netscape Navigator 4. We'll still have to code for it at least through 2012. Come January 2013 though, all bets are off. Then we'll have the IE7/IE8 bugs until 2020 (thanks Microsoft!)

tomdeal 16y ago

Disclaimer: My experiences are based on the current german web landscape, so I don't know if this is true for other countries. I don't include IE6 anymore in my web pages. If it works, ok, if not, well... too bad. In the last year, no customer ever really wanted to have an IE6 site. The Problem with a site like this from Microsoft is, it is not the normal household PC which is still running IE6. There might be a few, but that number should be close to zero. It is the big companies, who are not switching to a newer version, because they have special software programmed for IE6 with funny activeX elements and big domain stuff behind so they can't simply flip the switch, and if it works, why should they upgrade? They don't want to throw a whole bunch of money at this problem. Thats sad, but you can't do anything about it...

grizzlylazer 16y ago

The only people who visit this page are probably already on a different browser.