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How do you suggest Microsoft goes about convincing the millions of East Asian users running IE6 on a pirated version of XP to upgrade to IE10?

WiseWeasel 14y ago
Release IE10 for WinXP, and don't check authentication.
- ygra 14y ago
  Given that IE 10 (and 9 before it) builds on core Windows APIs only introduced in Windows 7 I'd consider that unlikely. And they definitely won't invest the time and effort of backporting DirectWrite, Direct2D and whatnot to XP (this might even include DirectX 10 and/or 11 along with WARP) which is already out of mainstream support and only get security patches.
striderxiii 14y ago
You gotta suspect they'll be forced into upgrading eventually. Developers simply can't continue supporting those archaic versions. But then I suppose the operative word there is 'eventually' which can't come soon enough.
nkassis 14y ago
I think they should see if they can release a strip down demo version of windows. No frills or anything just the basic required functionality with clear path for upgrading. That version should be able to work on WinXP level hardware and be easy to upgrade. I would probably be hard to offer something like this without cannibalizing some of their sales but in Asia, they have tons of users who will never purchase a legitimate version of windows but are sizable enough that they have to cater to them for other services.
bradleyjg 14y ago
If they aren't your (potential) customers and/or those of your advertisers, do you really care? All the countries in North America, Europe and South America ex-Chile and and Venezuela are at less than 1% IE 6 usage.[1] 7 & 8, which are better but still not great developer-wise, unfortunately still have a ways to go before passing that threshold. But at a minimum you should think long and hard before pouring time into IE 6 compatibility. [1] http://www.ie6countdown.com/#list http://www.ie6countdown.com/#list

WiseWeasel 14y ago

Release IE10 for WinXP, and don't check authentication.

ygra 14y ago
Given that IE 10 (and 9 before it) builds on core Windows APIs only introduced in Windows 7 I'd consider that unlikely. And they definitely won't invest the time and effort of backporting DirectWrite, Direct2D and whatnot to XP (this might even include DirectX 10 and/or 11 along with WARP) which is already out of mainstream support and only get security patches.

striderxiii 14y ago

You gotta suspect they'll be forced into upgrading eventually. Developers simply can't continue supporting those archaic versions. But then I suppose the operative word there is 'eventually' which can't come soon enough.

nkassis 14y ago

I think they should see if they can release a strip down demo version of windows. No frills or anything just the basic required functionality with clear path for upgrading. That version should be able to work on WinXP level hardware and be easy to upgrade. I would probably be hard to offer something like this without cannibalizing some of their sales but in Asia, they have tons of users who will never purchase a legitimate version of windows but are sizable enough that they have to cater to them for other services.

bradleyjg 14y ago

If they aren't your (potential) customers and/or those of your advertisers, do you really care? All the countries in North America, Europe and South America ex-Chile and and Venezuela are at less than 1% IE 6 usage.[1] 7 & 8, which are better but still not great developer-wise, unfortunately still have a ways to go before passing that threshold. But at a minimum you should think long and hard before pouring time into IE 6 compatibility. [1] http://www.ie6countdown.com/#list http://www.ie6countdown.com/#list