Drop IE6 Support — Give People a Reason to Upgrade
Lately, well longer then lately I’ve been debating the idea of dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 when I develop a new website. I’ve always catered for IE6 when it comes to client projects. Not any more. I’m no longer including CSS support for IE6 in the standard project scope. CSS Hacks are no ones friend!
Why do people still use IE6? This is a browser that’s been released in August 2001 — that’s over 7 years ago. It’s old, it’s got hundreds of compatibility issues, it’s not particularly secure and neither does it have many features we come to rely on today in modern browsers. It doesn’t even have tabs. But statistics show, that a sizable chunk of the internet is still surfing on IE6. There are a few reasons why…
37signals explains dropping IE 6 support as a way to provide “significantly better online experiences“, claiming the browser built in 2001 just isn’t good enough for that.
IE Death March
Internet Explorer 6 will be SEVEN years old on August 27th. It came out a few weeks before the Twin Towers fell. It came out before the Nintendo GameCube. It came out before the first iPod.
www.iedeathmarch.org
Save The Developers
Our current campaign focuses on assisting users in upgrading their Internet Explorer 6 web browser. This campaign will result in former IE 6 users having a more enjoyable experience on the web while (hopefully) creating a less stressful and complicated environment for web developers by hastening the retirement of an outdated browser.
www.savethedevelopers.org
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I’d be interested to see how you present this info to clients.
Averaging stats from a few larger sites I work on, 25% are still on IE 6. I imagine sites targeting a smaller market (like the Comox Valley) would have a higher IE 6 share. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago I developed something that required NN 4! (ugh)
In any case, an IE 6 tax will probably make your work more enjoyable. And if you’re happy, it should shine through in your work.
Keep us posted — I’d love to hear how this goes.