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[techcrunch.com...]
.... screenshot taken by an IE6 user who was watching some videos on YouTube, it appears the Google company will be phasing out support for the browser shortly.YouTube so far hasn’t officially communicated about the desire to drop support for IE6, but it’s conceivable that like Digg it would rather have its developers spend time optimizing the service for newer, better browsers than wasting man hours on the oft-despised Microsoft browser.
Thank-you YouTube!
I am still seeing more IE6 users then IE8 users on some sites, hopefully with a couple major sites dropping support and encouraging upgrades more people will actually upgrade their browser.
In my new web contracts I specifically state I don't offer IE6 anymore as a supported browser of my sites, and that if they want the site optimized for IE6 that there is an extra charge.
If enough sites would simply dump IE 6 support instead of coddling those users we wouldn't be in this mess.
Older machines have alternatives called Firefox and Opera, so I have no sympathy.
If a machine's OS doesn't support it then fine but at least use some other modern browser.
I have to say my opinion changed somewhat about this after seeing the reasons people haven't upgraded.
37% haven't because they don't have admin access to their machine... that is sad.
I have to say my opinion changed somewhat about this after seeing the reasons people haven't upgraded.37% haven't because they don't have admin access to their machine... that is sad.
Yes, at least with that sample, only 17% of IE 6 users don't feel a need to upgrade and only 7% prefer IE 6 to other browsers.
37% ¦ I can’t upgrade because I don’t have administrator access on my computer.
33% ¦ I can’t upgrade because someone at work says I can’t.
I think there's some overlap there, as both boil down to not having permission, one way or another, to upgrade the browser or install an alternative. At work, the system administrator controls what you can and cannot do on your computer, and most of the time that's for your own good (or the company's, of course). I'm sure there are "legitimate" reasons for them to disallow upgrades or alternatives, like when their intranet only works with IE6. All in all, however, I am also of the opinion that web developers should cease supporting the ancient browser wherever possible, or we'll simply never get rid of it. These initiatives, small as they may seem, certainly are a step in the right direction - hopefully, more will follow.
17% of IE 6 users don't feel a need to upgrade
That's because 99.99% of the webmasters keep coddling them.
If they couldn't get around the web, they would feed a sudden need to upgrade.
I would think the most major way to get them to upgrade is if all the online banking and stock trading sites simply blocked IE 6 citing "security concerns" ;)
And it looks like they won't be switching to Firefox either.
[theregister.co.uk...]
...
Reading that you can almost believe that something as simple as using Firefox is really... "a question of the resources to manage multiple systems" and isn't as simple as you would think.
No wonder the gov isn't able to do anything properly, if adopting a simple thing like a new browser is made to be that complicated than how does anything ever get done?
Next comes the next legacy IE version: IE7 it's not that much better than IE6 when it comes to CSS
The scary part is that the brand new IE8 will be like IE6 is today in a few years (the lack of CSS3 support that IE8 introduces will come and haunt us for years to come).
The biggest problem is the programmers are old school. Making the web software supported for IE 6 only.
I would think the most major way to get them to upgrade is if all the online banking and stock trading sites simply blocked IE 6 citing "security concerns" ;)
If I owned a bank I would definitely do that! Unfortunately, I am a small scale webmaster, with lots of competitors whose sites do work with IE6, and a lot of people using my site from work (where they cannot upgrade). How many visitors should I shed be willing to lose?
Reading that you can almost believe that something as simple as using Firefox is really... "a question of the resources to manage multiple systems" and isn't as simple as you would think.
I remember a colleague of mine getting very upset when a request to have Netscape Navigator installed (10 years ago) lead to a reply asking for a business case for it from the outsourced IT support guys. He had been asked to evaluate the website and comment on how good a job the designers were doing (bad, btw).
The guy who asked for the business case also claimed to have a good relationship with Microsoft. Sorry, if you are an SME you are not important enough for that to mean anything other than "we are lazy or incompetent, so we just think what the salesman tells us to".
