Comments on: Why You Should Stop Supporting IE6

By: Brenelz

Brenelz — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:30:12 +0000

Yeah I agree with what you said there. It doesn’t have to look perfect… make it look *decent* in IE6 but if certain things are a little off, no big deal.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:54:49 +0000

I’m not advocating abandoning it, I’m advocating developers stop killing themselves with ie_hacks.css files. If something doesn’t look exactly right in ie6, that’s the shove that they might just need to upgrade.

By: Brenelz

Brenelz — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:23:53 +0000

I agree that it will be nice when IE6 is no longer in existance, but for myself 20% of the market share is still too high to completely abandon it…

By: Renee Lemley

Renee Lemley — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:02:45 +0000

Amen and Alleluia! IE6, 7, 8 or an other number is a rash on the skin of humanity. (No offense intended to people with actual rashes.)
It costs people time, security and money. (Not to mention unnecessary headaches.)
It’s limiting and unreliable.
I think it’s Microsoft’s way of punishing the world for that lawsuit a few years back.

It’s like I always say…Friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer.

Thanks for this fact-packed post, will be linking directly to it from my blog’s sidebar where I’m setting up an anti-IE camp.

Kind regards,
Renee

By: Rob McAlister

Rob McAlister — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:51:05 +0000

I totally agree. Just had a conversation about this at work yesterday. As long as developers continue to code to support IE6, users have no reason to upgrade. Internet Explorer gained market share by providing features that other browsers did not support and the “Best Viewed in x browser” pushed people to switch. Now it’s unprofessional to tag sites with that phrase. Choosing not to implement features in superior browsers because IE6 can’t do it is silly. Spending all the extra development time to get the features to work in IE6 is often a resource drain.

I’ll use General Motors cars as an example (disclaimer: I don’t work for nor have I ever worked for GM and my two current cars are a Honda and a Mazda). The Pontiac G6 is a nice sedan that does the basics well. The Cadillac CTS is a slightly larger car that does a whole lot very well. Going on a long trip in the Cadillac is many times more pleasant than in the Pontiac. The expectations are different and the delivery is different. Thinking the Pontiac should provide a similar experience is reasonable. But telling the DOT that they need to fix the roads so that the Pontiac driver/rider has the same experience as in the Cadillac sounds absolutely ridiculous. That’s the comparison with IE7 and a modern standards compliant browser.

Now take that Pontiac 8 years ago and compare it with today’s Cadillac and you have the comparison between IE6 and a modern standards compliant browser. No contest. If you’re still driving the 8 year old non-premium browser, understand that you won’t be getting the best experience.