5 ms·

At the speed web development is moving, I don't see much sense in coddling browsers that are more than 2-3 years old.

by jhack 13y ago

monkeynotes 13y ago
That all changes if your client uses browsers that are more then 2-3 years old, and you are financially dependent on your client being served properly.
- nbouscal 13y ago
  You can tell your client to use a new browser. It's all in how you phrase it. Everyone in this thread seems so damn scared of their clients. You have a way to improve their experience of using the internet and using your product. That's an opportunity to embrace, not something to run away from.
dave5104 13y ago
It all depends on your end goals and your audience. I don't have #'s off the top of my head, but let's say IE8 accounted for 40% of browser usage across your visitors. But IE8 is old. Are you willing to say to 40% of your potentially paying customers "Sorry, but your browser sucks. We're not supporting you."? If you are, great. No coddling necessary. But for other people, they may not be comfortable with the percentages yet, and I think that's perfectly understandable.
- nbouscal 13y ago
  You wouldn't say it like that, I hope. You would say, “Here's a link to a browser upgrade that will allow you to enjoy the best product we can offer you. It's completely free, and takes only a few minutes to install!” Also, IE8 accounts for less than 10% of browser usage worldwide now, so the odds of a company having it be 40% are rather slim, unless they specifically target enterprise in which case they dug their own grave and I have no sympathy for them.
  - dave5104 13y ago
    Oh no, of course not. I'm just trying to make the point that some companies may not be comfortable with whatever IE8 is at right now. I think you can substitute "IE8" for any browser, and "40%" for whatever that browser's current market share is. Coincidentally, I work in the multi-family housing industry, and one of the industry titans requires IE to use their product--which everyone uses--so we have ~82% IE share on our own product (which is supplementary to the titan). Of that, IE8 stands at ~31% of our total site traffic, which is compelling enough for our company to need to support it. (IE9 is only ~39%, with IE6/7/10 making up the remaining 12%.) So until that industry titan changes their way, we're stuck in an IE rut.
    - nbouscal 13y ago
      That's a shitty situation to be in. Sounds like a great opportunity for someone to disrupt that industry titan, though.
      - nasmorn 13y ago
        Some businesses have deeper moats than front end dev speed.
        dave5104 13y ago
        This is exactly right for multi-family housing. I can't see any sort of startup or disruption coming in anytime soon without taking years of hard work to reach 50% feature parity to meet what the industry expects are standard features. (Or maybe I've been working here too long to get past that notion.)
      - democracy 13y ago
        What exactly is shitty about it? Old browsers can still display text, images and hyperlinks. There are millions of use-cases perfectly covered by them.
        13y ago
DigitalJack 13y ago
Naturally that depends on your target audience. I haven't checked the version, but we're stuck on an older IE at work. Possibly 9, but I think it's 8. No choice in the matter.
- johnyuek 13y ago
  "No choice in the matter." Does someone have a gun the CEO's head stopping him? He could tell everyone to install latest Chrome or Firefox and have everyone upgraded in 10 minutes.
  - acanby 13y ago
    These decisions typically have much wider reaching ramifications, like an existing tech stack which relies on some quirk of IE6, or activeX. Yes, it's simple to upgrade a browser, but the potential impact must be evaluated, and this takes time (more than 10 mins to install a new browser).
    - r4vik 13y ago
      installing chrome or firefox doesn't magically uninstall IE
acanby 13y ago
I think this really depends on your target market. Big corps such as banks are typically slow to move and I know of at least one which is only just moving from IE6 now.
democracy 13y ago
So are you really going to tell your users to "back off" and upgrade?

At the speed web development is moving, I don't see much sense in coddling browsers that are more than 2-3 years old.

by jhack 13y ago

At the speed web development is moving, I don't see much sense in coddling browsers that are more than 2-3 years old.

That all changes if your client uses browsers that are more then 2-3 years old, and you are financially dependent on your client being served properly.

nbouscal 13y ago
You can tell your client to use a new browser. It's all in how you phrase it. Everyone in this thread seems so damn scared of their clients. You have a way to improve their experience of using the internet and using your product. That's an opportunity to embrace, not something to run away from.

dave5104 13y ago

It all depends on your end goals and your audience. I don't have #'s off the top of my head, but let's say IE8 accounted for 40% of browser usage across your visitors. But IE8 is old. Are you willing to say to 40% of your potentially paying customers "Sorry, but your browser sucks. We're not supporting you."? If you are, great. No coddling necessary. But for other people, they may not be comfortable with the percentages yet, and I think that's perfectly understandable.

nbouscal 13y ago
You wouldn't say it like that, I hope. You would say, “Here's a link to a browser upgrade that will allow you to enjoy the best product we can offer you. It's completely free, and takes only a few minutes to install!” Also, IE8 accounts for less than 10% of browser usage worldwide now, so the odds of a company having it be 40% are rather slim, unless they specifically target enterprise in which case they dug their own grave and I have no sympathy for them.
- dave5104 13y ago
  Oh no, of course not. I'm just trying to make the point that some companies may not be comfortable with whatever IE8 is at right now. I think you can substitute "IE8" for any browser, and "40%" for whatever that browser's current market share is. Coincidentally, I work in the multi-family housing industry, and one of the industry titans requires IE to use their product--which everyone uses--so we have ~82% IE share on our own product (which is supplementary to the titan). Of that, IE8 stands at ~31% of our total site traffic, which is compelling enough for our company to need to support it. (IE9 is only ~39%, with IE6/7/10 making up the remaining 12%.) So until that industry titan changes their way, we're stuck in an IE rut.
  - nbouscal 13y ago
    That's a shitty situation to be in. Sounds like a great opportunity for someone to disrupt that industry titan, though.
    - nasmorn 13y ago
      Some businesses have deeper moats than front end dev speed.
      - dave5104 13y ago
        This is exactly right for multi-family housing. I can't see any sort of startup or disruption coming in anytime soon without taking years of hard work to reach 50% feature parity to meet what the industry expects are standard features. (Or maybe I've been working here too long to get past that notion.)
    - democracy 13y ago
      What exactly is shitty about it? Old browsers can still display text, images and hyperlinks. There are millions of use-cases perfectly covered by them.
      - 13y ago

DigitalJack 13y ago

Naturally that depends on your target audience. I haven't checked the version, but we're stuck on an older IE at work. Possibly 9, but I think it's 8. No choice in the matter.

johnyuek 13y ago
"No choice in the matter." Does someone have a gun the CEO's head stopping him? He could tell everyone to install latest Chrome or Firefox and have everyone upgraded in 10 minutes.
- acanby 13y ago
  These decisions typically have much wider reaching ramifications, like an existing tech stack which relies on some quirk of IE6, or activeX. Yes, it's simple to upgrade a browser, but the potential impact must be evaluated, and this takes time (more than 10 mins to install a new browser).
  - r4vik 13y ago
    installing chrome or firefox doesn't magically uninstall IE

acanby 13y ago

I think this really depends on your target market. Big corps such as banks are typically slow to move and I know of at least one which is only just moving from IE6 now.

democracy 13y ago

So are you really going to tell your users to "back off" and upgrade?