The “death” of IE 6, presented by Aten Design Group at a mock funeral earlier this month in Denver, Colorado, was indeed symbolic and a long time coming. After all, funerals are supposed to be a time of sorrow for the deceased; however in the case of IE 6, we could not be happier to see the proposed ending of this aged browser.
Ask any developer, designer or quality assurance professional about the
animosity they have towards IE 6, and you will get an earful about the
limitations and frustration they have had working firsthand with the
browser. For instance, websites that are built using current web standards practically have to be customized to work in IE 6. Designers wanting to push the limits are, well, limited, as their concepts likely won’t transfer to IE 6 very well. Quality Assurance professionals required to test IE 6 know to add plenty of extra time to the QA process. Testing a website in IE 6 is almost equal to testing two sites instead of one, as a site in IE 6 will render completely differently than it will in FireFox, IE 8 or Safari. In IE 6, content is most often misaligned or pushed down to the bottom of the page, and then there’s the ubiquitous transparent .png issue, where images appear to be surrounded by a light blue halo.
So with all the problems experienced by web professionals, plus the availability and quality of more modern browsers (not to mention IE 6 is prone to hacks), why are users still navigating the web with a 9- year-old browser?
A few things:
- Older computers came with IE 6 pre-installed.
- Users are comfortable using IE 6 and aren’t willing to change.
- Employees have to use IE 6 at work and are prevented from upgrading or downloading another browser.
- Clients require sites to render IE 6 due to the number of users.
As of February 2010, Net Marketshare shows IE 6 with a nearly 20% penetration rate, which is on the heels of the # 1 browser Internet Explorer 8. IE 6, however, is on a steady decline.
For a browser that is loathed by many, reduced usage could not come at a better time. YouTube is dropping support for IE 6 on March 13; UK citizens are petitioning their government to cease using IE 6; and France and Germany are warning against using any version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, citing security vulnerabilities.
Goodbye IE 6, 9 years is a long time. Users owe it to themselves to upgrade.