3 ms·

I like the arstechnica pie chart at the bottom. I'm guessing a large percentage of their IE users are in fact tied in by office systems and such. I suppose it'

I like the arstechnica pie chart at the bottom. I'm guessing a large percentage of their IE users are in fact tied in by office systems and such. I suppose it's a credence to a tech site that its readers are overwhelmingly tech-orientated compared to the widespread market.

drhowarddrfine 17y ago
That should tell others that the people who know the most about computers tend not to use IE.
eli 17y ago
As another data point, I admin some fairly popular sites that cater to enterprise users and we have a huge percentage of IE6 users. Far more than the "average" site and certainly more than Firefox.
InclinedPlane 17y ago
There is an important lesson for web devs in that 2nd pie chart. Browser usage is enormously variable depending on demographics. When you weigh the cost/benefit tradeoffs of cross-browser compatibility for your site it is critical that you understand the actual browser usage for your site, not just the internet at large. On a mass-appeal website that pulls in a wide cross-section of worldwide internet users IE may be the majority browser, dominating everything else by a 3:1 margin, with IE6 as popular as firefox. For such a site it probably pays off to make sure your site not only works but works well and looks good in IE, even IE6. However, if you have a more tech focused site then things are dramatically different, likely firefox will be the overwhelmingly dominant browser, with IE a distant 2nd, 3rd, or 4th and IE6 usage just a tiny slice. In that scenario the excessive costs of making IE (let alone IE6) compatibility a first tier design priority become completely unjustified and you should probably care about how well your site works in IE6 about as much as you care about it working in Opera (which is probably not much).
- adamc 17y ago
  I agree but would add that, in my experience, getting your site to work in Opera is easy, so sites usually do work there. Getting a modern site to work in IE6 takes a lot of testing and hackery.

drhowarddrfine 17y ago

That should tell others that the people who know the most about computers tend not to use IE.

eli 17y ago

As another data point, I admin some fairly popular sites that cater to enterprise users and we have a huge percentage of IE6 users. Far more than the "average" site and certainly more than Firefox.

InclinedPlane 17y ago

There is an important lesson for web devs in that 2nd pie chart. Browser usage is enormously variable depending on demographics. When you weigh the cost/benefit tradeoffs of cross-browser compatibility for your site it is critical that you understand the actual browser usage for your site, not just the internet at large. On a mass-appeal website that pulls in a wide cross-section of worldwide internet users IE may be the majority browser, dominating everything else by a 3:1 margin, with IE6 as popular as firefox. For such a site it probably pays off to make sure your site not only works but works well and looks good in IE, even IE6. However, if you have a more tech focused site then things are dramatically different, likely firefox will be the overwhelmingly dominant browser, with IE a distant 2nd, 3rd, or 4th and IE6 usage just a tiny slice. In that scenario the excessive costs of making IE (let alone IE6) compatibility a first tier design priority become completely unjustified and you should probably care about how well your site works in IE6 about as much as you care about it working in Opera (which is probably not much).

adamc 17y ago
I agree but would add that, in my experience, getting your site to work in Opera is easy, so sites usually do work there. Getting a modern site to work in IE6 takes a lot of testing and hackery.