3 ms·

IE6 Upgrade Warning

41 points by nreece 18y ago

ggchappell 18y ago
When I saw this page, it hit me: all browser logos are round. Is there a reason for this?
- ivank 18y ago
  I'm guessing it's just the desire to look like the IE logo. Even others are round: Maxthon, Flock, xB Browser. Netscape also went from square to round: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape_classic_logo.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape_classic_logo.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape.svg Also, Phoenix/Firebird wasn't round: http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/firebird.jpg http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/...
  - eli 18y ago
    I think a lot of program icons went from square to round (or irregular) once transparent backgrounds caught on.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- browngeek 18y ago
  Good observation. It could be because the "world" in www is round.
- ojbyrne 18y ago
  Technically, Opera, being the independent sort, is more of an oval.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Two thoughts, and an obvious third comment. First, because the browser logo started out as the status indicator in NCSA Mosaic and in the '90s browsers, before UI designers started thinking about screen real estate. The animated logos in these indicators needed to display indefinite progress, so they were elaborate spinners, and spinners are round. Second, because the globe is a visual metaphor for the world wide web, and circles figure prominently in navigation, which is a design motif for browsers. Finally, because the first major commercial browsers (Netscape and IE) had circle logos, so circles became part of the marketing vocabulary for browsers. You could do a square logo now, but it'd stick out. Note that the original Mozilla browser logo was not a circle. AND WHERE IS IT NOW?
erlanger 18y ago
"Shut up, I'm at a public library, I don't have a choice." And hundreds of similar reactions to pretentious frontend web developers who assume that every computer is a personal one.
- jackowayed 18y ago
  but maybe if enough major sites start doing stuff like this, IT will finally upgrade browsers.
  - JunkDNA 18y ago
    Sadly, inside corporate environments this is unlikely to be the case. Big companies often have web apps that are broken in anything other than IE6. These IT departments will fight the upgrade until it is the only option. I would not be surprised if the vast majority of IE6 users are people in big companies forced to use it. At my previous employer they were STILL writing apps that only worked in IE6 last year.
    - lucumo 18y ago
      Ah, so these Upgrade-IE-warnings are actually anti-procrastination tools in disguise! :-)
    - puns 18y ago
      But you don't have to make a choice -- you can pick both. Why not install Firefox for main browsing and keep IE6 for use with their old apps? This gives you a more productive (IE6 doesn't have tabs...) and secure browser for primary use, and the old browser to use with legacy software.
      - SystemOut 18y ago
        Most corporate environments don't allow you to install software that isn't authorized. As developers we're normally given full administrative control over our systems but that's not the norm in most moderate to large companies.
andrewl-hn 18y ago
Browser versions are really messed up. IE8, Opera 9.6 are out already and Chrome 2 is not released for general public yet. By the way it's interesting to know how the newly released IE6 for Windows Mobile reacts on conditional comments like this. Does anybody have an idea?
jgoosdh 18y ago
thats the way we do it, force the suckers to upgrade or deny them service!
Sephr 18y ago
The library code made me sick. Look at all the globals and where is the indentation and organization? http://ie6-upgrade-warning.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ie6/warning.js http://ie6-upgrade-warning.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ie6/warn... Edit: Wow, the main function, e, (great name, definitely not going to collide with other names) has >50 var statements. I don't think the guy who made this library knows that you can var a, b, c, d;
- thorax 18y ago
  Maybe open up a bug report? http://code.google.com/p/ie6-upgrade-warning/issues/entry http://code.google.com/p/ie6-upgrade-warning/issues/entry From the looks of it, the author is a junior coder or new to this sort of JS library code. He may not know any better, but keep in mind he's just looking to help by releasing this-- we were all newbie devs at one point. Overall, I'm not a fan of disparaging any code people release for free. There are too many developers who keep useful code locked away on their disks because they're afraid people will mock their work. Don't get me wrong, it's very helpful for potential consumers to know about the issues you mention, but there may be a better way to phrase your criticism.
  - Sephr 18y ago
    Sorry for coming off so rude. Anyway, I was just going to send a message offering it up for the author due to it not being that large of a codebase and was going to offer to make neater version of the code. I'm going instead to send a bug report as you suggested as that seems best for tracking it.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
matthias 18y ago
From the title/domain, I thought that the upg warning was from google. Is there a solution to this problem? Would adding cases such as code.google.com be worthwhile?
artificer 18y ago
Unfortunately, here in Greece the situation is so ugly that not even those warnings have any change of convincing people to upgrade. I can imagine most of them simply closing the window. Among the reasons for this is that we've got a huge pirated windows xp installation base, uneducated users that ignore anything non-microsoftic and think that taking the ECDL makes you a computer scientist, and there is a large amount of amazingly badly written IE-only web apps. Open source is much less known here than in other countries. Our only hope is for people to upgrade to Vista, in order to receive IE7 automatically (hey, did I just say that?)
rythie 18y ago
I don't know why people keep on trying to aggressively get rid of IE6, it will die of it's own accord anyway. Even according to the W3c's web stats (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp), who are probably early adoptors, IE6 has 17% market share. IE6 still has more than Opera, Safari, Chrome and IE8 put together. I don't see that it makes any business sense to annoy a large section of your users, just to save a little bit of development time. I know for example in some internet cafes in Eygpt in December last year they were still using IE6 and no warning message is likely to fix that soon. I say just fix your sites until it's 2-3% of the market, like when Netscape 4 died.

IE6 Upgrade Warning

41 points by nreece 18y ago

ggchappell 18y ago

When I saw this page, it hit me: all browser logos are round. Is there a reason for this?

ivank 18y ago
I'm guessing it's just the desire to look like the IE logo. Even others are round: Maxthon, Flock, xB Browser. Netscape also went from square to round: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape_classic_logo.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape_classic_logo.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Netscape.svg Also, Phoenix/Firebird wasn't round: http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/firebird.jpg http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/...
- eli 18y ago
  I think a lot of program icons went from square to round (or irregular) once transparent backgrounds caught on.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
browngeek 18y ago
Good observation. It could be because the "world" in www is round.
ojbyrne 18y ago
Technically, Opera, being the independent sort, is more of an oval.
tptacek 18y ago
Two thoughts, and an obvious third comment. First, because the browser logo started out as the status indicator in NCSA Mosaic and in the '90s browsers, before UI designers started thinking about screen real estate. The animated logos in these indicators needed to display indefinite progress, so they were elaborate spinners, and spinners are round. Second, because the globe is a visual metaphor for the world wide web, and circles figure prominently in navigation, which is a design motif for browsers. Finally, because the first major commercial browsers (Netscape and IE) had circle logos, so circles became part of the marketing vocabulary for browsers. You could do a square logo now, but it'd stick out. Note that the original Mozilla browser logo was not a circle. AND WHERE IS IT NOW?

erlanger 18y ago

"Shut up, I'm at a public library, I don't have a choice." And hundreds of similar reactions to pretentious frontend web developers who assume that every computer is a personal one.

jackowayed 18y ago
but maybe if enough major sites start doing stuff like this, IT will finally upgrade browsers.
- JunkDNA 18y ago
  Sadly, inside corporate environments this is unlikely to be the case. Big companies often have web apps that are broken in anything other than IE6. These IT departments will fight the upgrade until it is the only option. I would not be surprised if the vast majority of IE6 users are people in big companies forced to use it. At my previous employer they were STILL writing apps that only worked in IE6 last year.
  - lucumo 18y ago
    Ah, so these Upgrade-IE-warnings are actually anti-procrastination tools in disguise! :-)
  - puns 18y ago
    But you don't have to make a choice -- you can pick both. Why not install Firefox for main browsing and keep IE6 for use with their old apps? This gives you a more productive (IE6 doesn't have tabs...) and secure browser for primary use, and the old browser to use with legacy software.
    - SystemOut 18y ago
      Most corporate environments don't allow you to install software that isn't authorized. As developers we're normally given full administrative control over our systems but that's not the norm in most moderate to large companies.

andrewl-hn 18y ago

Browser versions are really messed up. IE8, Opera 9.6 are out already and Chrome 2 is not released for general public yet. By the way it's interesting to know how the newly released IE6 for Windows Mobile reacts on conditional comments like this. Does anybody have an idea?

jgoosdh 18y ago

thats the way we do it, force the suckers to upgrade or deny them service!

Sephr 18y ago

The library code made me sick. Look at all the globals and where is the indentation and organization? http://ie6-upgrade-warning.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ie6/warning.js http://ie6-upgrade-warning.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ie6/warn... Edit: Wow, the main function, e, (great name, definitely not going to collide with other names) has >50 var statements. I don't think the guy who made this library knows that you can var a, b, c, d;

thorax 18y ago
Maybe open up a bug report? http://code.google.com/p/ie6-upgrade-warning/issues/entry http://code.google.com/p/ie6-upgrade-warning/issues/entry From the looks of it, the author is a junior coder or new to this sort of JS library code. He may not know any better, but keep in mind he's just looking to help by releasing this-- we were all newbie devs at one point. Overall, I'm not a fan of disparaging any code people release for free. There are too many developers who keep useful code locked away on their disks because they're afraid people will mock their work. Don't get me wrong, it's very helpful for potential consumers to know about the issues you mention, but there may be a better way to phrase your criticism.
- Sephr 18y ago
  Sorry for coming off so rude. Anyway, I was just going to send a message offering it up for the author due to it not being that large of a codebase and was going to offer to make neater version of the code. I'm going instead to send a bug report as you suggested as that seems best for tracking it.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

matthias 18y ago

From the title/domain, I thought that the upg warning was from google. Is there a solution to this problem? Would adding cases such as code.google.com be worthwhile?

artificer 18y ago

Unfortunately, here in Greece the situation is so ugly that not even those warnings have any change of convincing people to upgrade. I can imagine most of them simply closing the window. Among the reasons for this is that we've got a huge pirated windows xp installation base, uneducated users that ignore anything non-microsoftic and think that taking the ECDL makes you a computer scientist, and there is a large amount of amazingly badly written IE-only web apps. Open source is much less known here than in other countries. Our only hope is for people to upgrade to Vista, in order to receive IE7 automatically (hey, did I just say that?)

rythie 18y ago

I don't know why people keep on trying to aggressively get rid of IE6, it will die of it's own accord anyway. Even according to the W3c's web stats (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp), who are probably early adoptors, IE6 has 17% market share. IE6 still has more than Opera, Safari, Chrome and IE8 put together. I don't see that it makes any business sense to annoy a large section of your users, just to save a little bit of development time. I know for example in some internet cafes in Eygpt in December last year they were still using IE6 and no warning message is likely to fix that soon. I say just fix your sites until it's 2-3% of the market, like when Netscape 4 died.