Will Internet Explorer 6 be the new Netscape 4?

with no more stand-alone versions of IE, what should we do

[chadmg]

Internet Explorer is by far the most popular browser. As web developers we will always have to support it. So I am kind of disturbed by the news that Microsoft will not release newer stand alone versions of their browser. If IE6 is the last version for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP then we will perhaps ALWAYS have to support that version. IE6 will eventually be the new Netscape 4, the giant thorn in all of our sides. It's hard to imagine why someone would still be using Netscape 4, so 5-10 years from now I could imagine that a large percentage of web users would still be using IE6. For the most part, it's a very capable browser for a very capable operating system. Most people are going to stick with what works for them.

So what can us web developers do about this? We might not need to take action right now, but if MS does not release a new version for current and old os's, we will need to eventually. Will we need to resort to "best viewed in any browser better than IE6" statements on our websites? JK :) Do we petition MS to release new stand-alone versions?
Is this all not going to matter once the medium changes and people start using their phones and pdas and wearable computers to access the web? Will extensible, standards compliant, gracefully degradable code in a a non-pixel perfect design be OK? Am I just being paranoid? Any thoughts?

[Lord Majestic]

IE6 is a good product nice to use product, which in my view only burdened by security issues. I am positive Microsoft will reconsider their current "decision" not to actively develop it as soon as there is real threat to IE's market share.

I was die hard Netscape user, but v4 was poor joke comparing to IE4 and then 5. I tried every build of Mozilla but it was not there until recently they stopped playing games with developing super-duper platform that does everything and focussed on getting good browser on Windows.

[zair]

Yeccch! I do not like the idea of having to design for that darn browser for another 5-10 years! Hehe, I think that's a very astute observation, that it just may be the next Netscape 4!

It really gets me that MS has all the resources it does, and would most likely have no problem making a standards-compliant browser, but it does nothing. Incorrect CSS support, png support, security issues, memory hogging (just try having 5-10 different IE windows open, and see how much memory it uses in total compared to something like firefox with 5-10 tabs open! You might be surprised!), all those problems make it a pain to design for! ...well, except the memory hogging. That's just annoying. :)

I've adapted my design style, though. Now I design for Firefox, and then try and make it work in IE. There's almost always little fixes you can add. Of course, sometimes the "fixes" create more bugs... which then create more bugs...

Heck, I'm all for saying "To view this page correctly requires a standards-compliant browser"! It would sure make my job quite a bit easier ;)