leveltwo Business Architects

Most web developers love their job. They love staying on the cutting edge, working with new technologies, and making things that people will actually USE. But among web-dudes everywhere, there is one vile, disgusting, [insert explicit word here] piece of crapware software that is unanimously despised: Internet Explorer 6.0.

By now, IE6 is not just old - it’s the ancient grandfather of the current version of Internet Explorer (IE8). Its outdated technologies hamper the ever expanding toolset of today’s web developers, limiting their innovation and crushing their dreams. Want a transparent image on your website? Better use GIF and not the ever-more-useful PNG (that is the standard in every other browser). Have an awesome layout that uses standards-compliant XHTML/CSS and even passes W3C validation? Be prepared to do some major hacking to get it to look even reasonably correct in IE6. These examples mentioned are, sadly, just the beginning of the cornucopia of issues that IE6 throws at us every day. Every web developer I’ve ever spoken to complains and complains about IE6 inhibiting productivity and causing them to bang their heads against walls, desks, monitors....whatever they could find. I can say without a doubt that Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft’s forgotten browser, has caused us all to scream “WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING!?!?!?” at the inanimate objects sitting on our desks.

However, we all learned in elementary school that complaining about a problem, not investigating its causes and not even attempting to provide a solution does not do anyone any good. So in light of Mrs. Cook’s third-grade teachings, I attempt to answer the following questions:

Why are we still using iE6?

As shown in the graphic above (reproduced from Digg.com), the main reason IE6 still lives, based on a poll conducted by Digg, is because of IT departments that have failed to upgrade. It is not uncommon for IT teams to oversee thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of computers, which makes upgrading from IE6 a long, drawn out process. However, IE6 was released in 2001. IE7, though it took a little over 4 years, was released almost 4 years ago! 4 years to make the switch? That seems like laziness to me.

Is IE6 Ever Going to Go Away???

Slowly, but surely, IE6 is making its retreat for a myriad of reasons. While some IT departments are STARTING to get the picture, the main reason for the falling IE6 market share is that Windows Update finally makes IE7 and IE8 a major upgrade, causing most consumer users to make the switch to a newer browser. In addition, as shown by the chart above (obtained from TechCrunch.com), other browsers such as Safari, Firefox, and even Google Chrome (down at the bottom) are starting to take share away from Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer (6, 7 and 8) holds approximately 54.4% of the market as of July 5, 2009. That is down from 65.8% it had in March of 2009. That’s a pretty substantial drop within 4 months, and proves that web developers everywhere have reason to have hope.

What Can We Do To Aid in Change??

Realistically, change is essentially only going to come when the big guys of the web say it is. Luckily, that time is quickly approaching (if not already here). On July 14, 2009, YouTube started showing a banner to IE6 users (shown above, image courtesy of TechCrunch.com) explaining that support for their beloved browser would be cut soon, and showed upgrade options. This follows in the wake of Web 2.0 behemoth Digg, who has recently conducted polls and posted on their blog about thinking about cutting IE6 support. Digg’s user base is about 5% IE6, though diggs, buries, and comments on Digg made by IE6 users only account for about 1% of the total.

Another passionate bunch of IE6 haters has started to say “Hey IT! (http://hey-it.com/index.html)”, and offers posters, a Facebook group and a Twitter campaign to help make IT departments aware of this unfortunate circumstance.

IE6 won’t go away overnight, but change is coming. Even though we keep you in our hearts, IE6, we just don’t have the resources to support you anymore. It’s time to say, “Goodbye, old friend” and send Grandpa to the nursing home.