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I have to question if we should be supporting IE6 at all with these endeavours. I see it as encouraging people to continue using busted tools that are clear and

I have to question if we should be supporting IE6 at all with these endeavours. I see it as encouraging people to continue using busted tools that are clear and present dangers to the web environment. I get the counter-argument, but on the whole, I'd rather see IE6,7 and 8 just die. If corporations are too risk-averse to get rid of a clearly-broken tool, why should we help them out?

untog 15y ago
> If corporations are too risk-averse to get rid of a clearly-broken tool, why should we help them out? Because we want their business. There's a simple equation here- if you don't support IE6, you lose business from people that use it. For some web sites (such as mine, fortunately) IE6 and IE7 usage is so low that it's a rounding error. A lot of other sites are not so fortunate.
- paulirish 15y ago
  It's unfair to assert that not making things look the same (like using something e.g. CSS PIE) means we're not supporting these browsers. Making your site work in IE6 is one thing... making the experience nice and fast is another... but it's impractical to make sure the pixels that you see in IE6 match the pixels you see in Chrome. > There's a simple equation here- if you don't support IE6, you lose business from people that use it. The equation is not so simple after all. And it means that you're responsible for delivering a good UX, not antiquated notions of identical rendering.
joshuacc 15y ago
Perhaps because they are an important source of customers? I agree with the sentiment of pushing things further along, but the cost/benefit tradeoffs can be radically different depending on individual business requirements.
- dmethvin 15y ago
  People at several online retail sites that I've spoken with say that IE6/7 clicks and conversions are proportionally better than other browsers. Nobody seems to know the reason. Maybe people are buying stuff from crappy corporate XP systems on their lunch hours, or perhaps it's computer-illiterate octogenarians spending their Social Security checks. As another sorta-related data point, I do know that back in the late 1990s the AOL users also clicked and converted at a higher rate than the Internet in general.
hendrik-xdest 15y ago
You obviously haven't been working with companies in the financial sector. Those Fortran developers you always hear about, this is were they are working. Many companies in that sector use rather old systems that can't be replaced. Some of those systems rely on IE6 or IE7. I do work for a company that targets that sector and we calculate with a user base of about 50% that still use one of those browsers. Yet, we want them to have all the bells and whistles that the web offers today as well. This will change (and is changing) but rather slowly. Some might even say it barely even moves.
- elliottcarlson 15y ago
  This is also the case in the Pharmaceutical sector. The IE6 user base accounts for the majority of the users and therefor it was the primary development platform but still requiring the bells and whistles.
  - scotto 15y ago
    And for the utility sector in they Bay Area. Legacy systems were actually built for IE6. It's so proprietary and ingrained into the work processes, that in order to use current versions of vendor products they have to install Firefox! Ha!

untog 15y ago

> If corporations are too risk-averse to get rid of a clearly-broken tool, why should we help them out? Because we want their business. There's a simple equation here- if you don't support IE6, you lose business from people that use it. For some web sites (such as mine, fortunately) IE6 and IE7 usage is so low that it's a rounding error. A lot of other sites are not so fortunate.

paulirish 15y ago
It's unfair to assert that not making things look the same (like using something e.g. CSS PIE) means we're not supporting these browsers. Making your site work in IE6 is one thing... making the experience nice and fast is another... but it's impractical to make sure the pixels that you see in IE6 match the pixels you see in Chrome. > There's a simple equation here- if you don't support IE6, you lose business from people that use it. The equation is not so simple after all. And it means that you're responsible for delivering a good UX, not antiquated notions of identical rendering.

joshuacc 15y ago

Perhaps because they are an important source of customers? I agree with the sentiment of pushing things further along, but the cost/benefit tradeoffs can be radically different depending on individual business requirements.

dmethvin 15y ago
People at several online retail sites that I've spoken with say that IE6/7 clicks and conversions are proportionally better than other browsers. Nobody seems to know the reason. Maybe people are buying stuff from crappy corporate XP systems on their lunch hours, or perhaps it's computer-illiterate octogenarians spending their Social Security checks. As another sorta-related data point, I do know that back in the late 1990s the AOL users also clicked and converted at a higher rate than the Internet in general.

hendrik-xdest 15y ago

You obviously haven't been working with companies in the financial sector. Those Fortran developers you always hear about, this is were they are working. Many companies in that sector use rather old systems that can't be replaced. Some of those systems rely on IE6 or IE7. I do work for a company that targets that sector and we calculate with a user base of about 50% that still use one of those browsers. Yet, we want them to have all the bells and whistles that the web offers today as well. This will change (and is changing) but rather slowly. Some might even say it barely even moves.

elliottcarlson 15y ago
This is also the case in the Pharmaceutical sector. The IE6 user base accounts for the majority of the users and therefor it was the primary development platform but still requiring the bells and whistles.
- scotto 15y ago
  And for the utility sector in they Bay Area. Legacy systems were actually built for IE6. It's so proprietary and ingrained into the work processes, that in order to use current versions of vendor products they have to install Firefox! Ha!