Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 must die. There, I said it. This has long been the stance of many web development professionals, but has recently been brought into the public spotlight. Websites like ie6nomore.com are gathering momentum due to the uprising of support from internet start-up companies like Weebly, Justin.tv, and many more.
The website provides a very brief case for why the IE 6 must be abandoned to encourage modernization throughout the web. This site is more than just a complaint; it's a solution: embed a line of code that will tell your website visitors still using IE6 to switch to a more modern browser.
"As any Web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time," the web site says. "Beyond that, IE 6's support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the Web back."
Now I'm not saying that everyone MUST upgrade now or face the repercussions of the collective web design world; I understand that some companies have built in internet applications that run on said browser. It is the rest of the world, the estimated 10 to 25 percent that is still using IE 6 for everyday web browsing that needs to get with the program. It's the mothers and grandmothers that are simply unaware of they are using an old browser (it wouldn't surprise me if I went home and found my own mother using it). Lastly it's the corporations whose IT departments are severely behind in the times. The more of their users that complain about seeing these messages, the more pressure the IT guys will have to upgrade to something more compatible such as Firefox, Chrome, or even IE8.
For web development companies such as us, it is especially frustrating when a user comes to a site and has a bad experience because of a browser that was designed 8 years ago. Imagine someone complaining to Blu-Ray that their movie was fuzzy only to find out they are watching it on a 2001 projection TV!! Ridiculous!
In order for the web to move forward, IE 6 must die.
Amen to that! I've been waiting for the day that it is finally no longer an issue for a long time.
Although, it does pretty highly depend upon the user statistics in supporting this movement right now. For example, my previous employer worked in an industry that wasn't too technologically advanced, and the web statistics showed that 45% of their viewers were in IE6 @ 1024x768. So, showing a "upgrade bar" to almost half their viewers was not really a viable option.
However, any of my personal sites no long support IE6, and neither will the social network that I am launching in September.
What should be next to go? The WWW in a URL in my opinion. You guys should see http://no-www.org/. If you go to my site, and try to put www in front of the url, you'll see that it is automatically changed. I think it just eliminates any possible confusion, and who wants to type those 4 additional characters (www.) to get somewhere?