Who supports IE6 these days?

November 13, 2007

Well, to answer the question directly: I won’t anymore. I refuse to support that sorry excuse for a internet browser. That browser is more then 6 years old, which is ages in internet time. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 over a year ago and when I design webpages I focus on the more recent browsers.

I pride myself in writing correct and clean HTML with nice CSS which looks good in all major browsers. So I test in Safari, FireFox, IE7 and Opera. If it looks good in IE6, I consider it a bonus. If it doesn’t, too bad.

Three reasons why I don’t support IE6 anymore:

  • IE6 was released in 2001. Sure, there have been updates but the core code remains old.
  • It has major issues with correct semantic HTML and CSS. Check the blogosphere, you will find numerous sites just dealing with hacks for IE6. I just refuse to spend evenings making pages suitable for one browser.
  • IE7 is out for a year now and has been part of the regular updating scheme of Windows. Since October 5, 2007 there is no ‘genuine software’ checking anymore, so everybody can benefit from the new IE7. It is not perfect, but way better than IE6. With that said: grab your copy of Internet Explorer 7.

So, there you have it. I’ve said it, I made my point.

While I won’t support it, I’ll still have a look at it just to see how it looks. Recently I came across a site which provides an installer which installs multiple versions of IE on your system for testing. It is always fun to see what the page looks like in IE2. :P

Head on down to the “TredoSoft: Install multiple versions of IE on your PC” article and read all about it. A must for all you webdesigners out there still pursuing the impossible. :P

Update: Roy provided me with this beautiful smiley: smiley firefox. =D Thanks Roy!

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3 responses

I'm glad you aren't supporting it any more, but unfortunately,

Jay Williams | November 13, 2007

I’m glad you aren’t supporting it any more, but unfortunately, a great deal of users are still using IE 6. And part of that is due to the fact that you can ONLY get IE7 on Windows XP. Older versions such as Windows 2K are out of luck.

Basically, if you’re making a private/hobby site for yourself, why cares about IE6.
But if you are building a site for a company that WANTS customers, you don’t want to turn anyone down just because their browser doesn’t match what “you” prefer.

And in all actuality, it normally isn’t too difficult to get IE6 it work, unless you have some really complex design.

Your comment about IE7 only being for Windows XP used

Dennis | November 13, 2007

Your comment about IE7 only being for Windows XP used to be correct.

On October 5, 2007, Microsoft removed the ‘genuine software’ validation before install, which meant that all versions of Windows, whether legitimate or not, are able to install the browser.

So basically there is no reason to install IE7 and stop using IE6 :P

I stand corrected: on the download site it still mentions it is for Windows XP or Windows 2003. That sucks….

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