I'm sure I'm going to hear millions of opinions about my comment but oh well. (This is a post I took off of our blog - full article below)


If you are a web developer who no longer wants to waste time catering to problems dealt by IE6, We have listed several website which will help your users update their old (and OUT-DATED) Internet Explorer 6!

• IE6 Update - A really effective way to get users to update! (Thanks Dave Auayan!)
• IE6 Blocker Script - by Chris Coyier
• IE6 Death March - Join a group of developers who refuse to support IE6
• Activebar2 - Creates a message bar to encourage the update of IE6
• Browser Stats - Use this link each month to watch IE6 slowly reach it's death!

(read the full article)

While I'm sympathetic to the sentiment, I too would very much like to see IE6 DIE, however, I really don't waste THAT much time getting things to work with it. The thing is, once you've learned what it's bugs are, it's not all that hard to code to defeat them, or to fix them when needed.

That being said, when you consider that 78% of all Enterprise users (meaning corporate America) are stuck on IE6, that's no small base to alienate with 'solutions' such as the ones you put forth in your post.

My preferred 'solution' - have IE8 as a critical update that will also automatically UNINSTALL IE6!!!!

My biggest issue with IE6 is the fact that in order to render PNG files, I have to constantly rely on using iepngfix.htc - which adds excessive bloated code.

You have to admit, you can do some really nice things to a website using CSS and web 2.0 standards in a "Standards Compliant" browser only to have IE6 throw a monkey wrench into your design.

17% of users are using IE6 - Why not less? Because Microsoft isn't forcing anyone to upgrade like they claimed to have. The less we support it, the better chances we have to helping it die! (dIE)

It really isn't hard to code designs for IE6... If you don't want to use the pngfix then use jpegs instead.

Accordingto W3 Browser Statistics 15.3% of all internet users used the dreaded IE6 in April 2009. The number is decreasing by 1-2% every month. It's happening but not quickly enough. If only Microsoft did automatic updates of their browser whenever a new update is available. Firefox does this and doesn;t give the user an option (that's the way it should be for their own good---*security*). Plus it would help us designers/developers as well.

Hello Modern_Media, nice read, thanks for sharing.

iStock Photo dropped support for it - that's a huge win for the web development community.

Amen!!!!

I, too, am sick of finding weird anomolies that occur due to IE6 rendering issues. I know there are work arounds to most issues, but were it not for IE6 I would have no designs hurdles to overcome at this time.

I've just spent several hours redoing submenus that worked perfectly on ie7, firefox, safari, opera, chrome - but NOT ie6.

My preferred 'solution' - have IE8 as a critical update that will also automatically UNINSTALL IE6!!!!

Would LOVE this solution.

Loved the sentence : "We Like our internet with a side of revolution" !

I just make a design , test it in http://browsershots.org/ , and I don't care too much about IE6 .. it's a waste of time , and I'm sorry for visitors using this c*** .. voilà !

That first link is very interesting. Hail to Firefox!

Originally Posted by cyrus_2003

That first link is very interesting. Hail to Firefox!

true, I used the code in my website ..

he it is

<!--[if IE 6]>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
	/*Load jQuery if not already loaded*/ if(typeof jQuery == 'undefined'){ document.write("<script type=\"text/javascript\"   src=\"http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js\"></"+"script>"); var __noconflict = true; } 
	var IE6UPDATE_OPTIONS = {
		icons_path: "http://static.ie6update.com/hosted/ie6update/images/"
	}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.ie6update.com/hosted/ie6update/ie6update.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

Unless you're doing anything complex IE6 isn't that bad to cater for, and once you've encountered the regular bugs you soon learn and accomodate them on your next project. http://www.positioniseverything.net/ has lots of fixes and solutions for IE6.

Sure, I would like IE6 to disappear but that's not going to happen for at least a couple of years. In the meantime you can continue to take a positive approach...

1. Learn IE6's bugs and quirks and inegrate them as part of your site build
2. Presentation in IE6 doesn't have to be pixel perfect
3. Consider using a very basic stylesheet just for IE6, people will still be able to use the site, it will just look plain (no harm in that!)
4. Keep spreading the word and encourage your friend, relations, colleagues to upgrade

Originally Posted by blue-dreamer

Unless you're doing anything complex IE6 isn't that bad to cater for, and once you've encountered the regular bugs you soon learn and accomodate them on your next project.

Hi Blue Dreamer,

Most of us are fully aware of how to fix these bugs- however, we're getting tired of doing so. One hour of time wasted working on IE6 is still one hour wasted and yes, we do complex design layouts using PNG files (or we at least like to THINK we do).

Our design studio's biggest issue with IE6 is it's PNG rendering. To fix it, we must use iepngfix which adds extra code to the website. ( Disclaimer: We don't want to hear, "use jpegs" we're well aware of how to use jpegs and gifs. ) The reason IE6 is still around is because Microsoft really isn't pushing it out the door like they said they would and those who have not upgraded, either don't know how, or they are too lazy to take the time to do so.

After many years of "fixing" our page layouts to accomodate IE6 - we're tired of it. Reading these responses - so is everyone else.

and those who have not upgraded, either don't know how, or they are too lazy to take the time to do so.

That's only true of home users. You keep forgetting the 78% of ENTERPRISE users who have no choice because their companies are entrenched with Microsoft and, for many reasons, have little incentive to upgrade thousands of employees away from IE6.

I'm sorry, but if you're all so good at building sites and working around IE6, why does it take you an HOUR to do fixes for IE6 ??

Yes, I despise it too, you get no argument from me that IE6 sucks, but I'm not going to take your approach by alienating and ticking off visitors - and I agree with BlueDreamer.

It took the web design/developer community YEARS to make MS listen and create a browser that even comes close to adhering to standards. It'll take YEARS to make them totally KILL that worthless browser. I'm willing to add my voice to that, but not at the expense of my site visitors.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

I'm sorry, but if you're all so good at building sites and working around IE6, why does it take you an HOUR to do fixes for IE6 ??

Speaking for the masses - nobody said "we were good at it." But most of us are aware of bug fixes in IE6.

LadynRed: The rest of this post is NOT talking about you...

More About IE6

In our studio's scenario - we use Joomla! CMS. We also design custom templates for the Joomla! platform. Many of these bug fixes with IE6 are sometimes VERY difficult to contain and in most cases we have conditional statements and separate CSS files just for ie6. If someone can bug fix these in less than an hour - bravo!
I really don't want to spend a single minute doing IE6 fixes any more. I'd rather do it once and be done with it.

Our problem lies in the fact that we don't use a typical "template" design unless we purchase one from RocketTheme - and even THOSE GUYS sometimes use IE6 notification scripts in their templates. I consider RocketTheme to be one of the best Joomla! template designers in the world.

Yeah Enterprise has a 60% share using IE6 - Blame that on Lazy IT.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-...html?tag=mncol

I would be arguing against myself if it was a year ago - but that was a year ago. Last year my gripe was IE5 - I don't hear anybody talking about IE5 now that it's officially DEAD! Now that IE8 is out, I am a firm believer in moving forward - NOT BACKWARDS. I have heard the enterprise song and dance - I'm not really buying into it.

That's where the problem lies- I have not seen any reason why IE6 should NOT be upgraded unless of course people are still using windows 2000.
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch..._users_why.php

My personal opinion - Enterprise IT departments just might be LAZY!


Funny stuff:
http://giveupinternet.com/wp-content...th-firefox.jpg

http://www.webupon.com/Browsers/Five...rer-Six.106028

I'll have to side with Modern Media on this one. Corporate IT departments ought to be scrambling to upgrade to IE8, if for no other reason to preserve their departments from being horrifically scaled back in this economy. I'd think that they would want to pitch the ROI on upgrading to save their heads from rolling to the unemployment line. Were I in such a department, even if there wasn't a ROI to upgrade, I'd lie like a MF to convince the execs that there was to save my job.

For those still using IE6 in the corporate world, for that matter, I would imagine that users there pretty much expect pages not to look quite right, if not break. I'm not saying don't fix for IE6, but don't spend hours on it, and don't sacrifice good design that works in everything else just for it.

tim

Originally Posted by Modern_Media

Most of us are fully aware of how to fix these bugs- however, we're getting tired of doing so. One hour of time wasted working on IE6 is still one hour wasted and yes, we do complex design layouts using PNG files (or we at least like to THINK we do).

Yes, I think everyone hates having to fix things for IE, me included, but that's just where we are with technology at the current time. Hate it as we do it's just something that we have to deal with until the time is right.

Originally Posted by serandfae

I'll have to side with Modern Media on this one. Corporate IT departments ought to be scrambling to upgrade to IE8, if for no other reason to preserve their departments from being horrifically scaled back in this economy. I'd think that they would want to pitch the ROI on upgrading to save their heads from rolling to the unemployment line. Were I in such a department, even if there wasn't a ROI to upgrade, I'd lie like a MF to convince the execs that there was to save my job.

I dare say many corporate iT departments have already got the IE6 message but are waiting for the green light from senior management to sanction the spend. Pity it's all happening at global recession time as this is inevitably holding some back.

Then again, many corporates are still widely using Win NT, I know of several global names who have a presence in my town (in the UK) where this is the case. For these guys upgrading is not that simple...

Corporate IT departments ought to be scrambling to upgrade to IE8, if for no other reason to preserve their departments from being horrifically scaled back in this economy.

Too late for most, the layoffs have already happened.

It's not JUST about have an 'lazy' IT dept, it's about MONEY. Many corporations (like mine!) have lots of custom applications that are/were built to work properly with IE6, so, along with contracts kissing up to MS, they face significant expenditures to not only upgrade the browsers, but to also fix all those entrenched custom applications that are likely to break in many ways when they upgrade. Does it make logical sense to upgrade - sure, but management isn't swayed by LOGIC, they are only swayed by MONEY. In this economy, they are pinching pennies until they squawk and cutting jobs as far as they can - and IT is always first on the chopping block because IT is seen solely as a business EXPENSE, not a source of revenue! I just read a recent study on this topic, I"ll have to go find it. ** got it -- http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=17290

Trust me, I've made the arguments and I've heard the rebuttals from mahogany row... been there, done that, got the T-Shirt!