26 February 2009 32 Comments

Grow up already and throw IE6 away!

"Genuine Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0" by jankoraseta

This article is just my contribution to anti IE6 campaign. Enough is enough. Personally, I dropped the support for IE6 some time ago - I don't care how my blog looks like in IE6 and I don't check my demos in IE6.

According to W3Schools statistics, IE6 currently holds 18.5% of market share. Comparing to January last year it's around 14% less. But it's still here. I checked the stats for my blog for last year, and IE (all versions) contributed 14% in total of which of IE6 22.75%. Beat me how much is that in total, but it's small enough for me :).

Beside dropping the support for this dinosaur, I'll give you some links that might help you do the same or explain to your customer WHY or just to get informed:

Stop Living In The Past is the "movement to phase out IE6, forever". You can find there some good reasons for upgrade and get the code you can put on your website to warn your IE6 visitors.
You can also check out Scott Hanselmann's article on this subject.
Looks like Norwegians are gone far away with the campaign, even Microsoft Norge calls for upgrade.
.NET Magazine also joined the capmaign and you can download their "Bring Down IE" logo.
WebResourcesDepot provides very useful resources
For the end, here's one interesting tip on How to Scare IE Users into Upgrading with only ONE Line of Code.

And here are some images to make your life easier while you waiting for IE6 to vanish:

"Truth" by adurdin

".Mac Web Galleries != IE6" by andrew*

"That Voodoo E" by CannedTuna

"Internet Explorer plush voodoo" by *chisa

Do you still use IE6? Enjoy browsing!

With support from

Janko is a UI designer, software engineer, blogger, speaker and artist. You can read more about him and warp speed blog here.

32 Comments

Marco 26 Feb 2009 #

Hands down to you Janko! Musta been my Tweet from a couple of days ago that got you triggered for this article ;) .

I'll also will not support IE6 in my next design, actually giving people a reason to upgrade (backwards compatability keeps users using the same browser - why should they upgrade?)!

Also check out the "IE 6 Blocker Script" from Chris Coyier:
http://css-tricks.com/ie-6-blocker-script/

dario-g 26 Feb 2009 #

I think that global action is very needed. There are lot of people who doesn't know what they are using to browse ( like my uncle - He still use IE6 :/ ). Leak of awareness...

PS
Wow... Polish IE4. I have like this, somewhere...

Eyvind A. Larre 26 Feb 2009 #

Hi, nice article.
The Norwegian campaign (that you refer to in your article) just got an email from Steve Ballmer.

Read more at: www.larre.com/.../

Adam Meyer 26 Feb 2009 #

3.1% of your users are still on ie6. I actually dropped support of it a while ago. I tell people... If you wan ti to be 100% compatible in IE6, It's going to cost more just because it takes so long.

My mom would be on it if she had a PC. People think the internet is the internet.

Janko 26 Feb 2009 #

Marco: Yes, among other initiatives, your tweet also triggered the article

dario-g: The image is awesome I found it on flickr!

Eyvind: Thanks for the link, it's encouraging that Steve Ballmer actually supports the campaign.

Janko 26 Feb 2009 #

Adam: Thanks for the calculation

Jin 26 Feb 2009 #

I broke up with her last year. http://www.8164.org/dear-ie6/

i also agree with this article: www.456bereastreet.com/.../

Web Design Manchester 26 Feb 2009 #

I have to admit I still look at my sites in IE6 - I just can't justify to a client that a significant portion of their visitors are going to be overlooked because I don't want to support an (admittedly) old browser. Unfortunately the majority of internet users couldn't give a monkey's what browser they are using.

I hear the reason the shift from IE6 to IE7 is taking so long is that to upgrade to IE7, Microsoft checks you're using a valid copy of Windows - reflects badly on how many people are using pirated copies of their operating system!

Neil 27 Feb 2009 #

I agree with Web Designer Manchester, I don't think its quite time to dismiss IE6 yet, but I do like the idea of recommending a better browser such as Firefox

Greg Givan 27 Feb 2009 #

Thanks for the great link to "Stop Living In The Past" - installed their WP plugin and was finally able to force my Dad to switch to a different browser.

Dainis Graveris 27 Feb 2009 #

I agree to You, Janko - however it depends of site target audience and in our sphere I don't think..here comes people who still live in past 3.1% ir definitely not worth time.

DRoss 28 Feb 2009 #

Hmm...Your website tagline is: "Helps you build good looking and functional websites" but by totally dismissing 10% of the world you are not helping the majority of your visitors create "good looking and functiional websites" for their own users.

I agree, I hate ie6 and don't spend a lot of time perfecting my sites for it. But, instead of telling everyone to dismiss it how about an article that explains how easy it is to support it? Or how easy it is to at least get basic layout working in ie6?

Janko 28 Feb 2009 #

Jin: Great article on 456bereastreet!

Web Design Manchester, Neil: It won't go away in a day - it will take some time, actually it already took some time

Greg: Glad it helped

Dainis: Of course, but clients (or whoever the target audience is) has to be aware of all of the possibilities.

DRoss: I am trying to help and I hope I can help some of the people. But I am aware of the fact that you can't please all of the people. So, if I can help 90% of the audience - I am more that happy. On the other hand I am also helping the other 10% you referred to - helping them to understand they should upgrade. It is also a help, isn't it?

Furnished Apartment New York 28 Feb 2009 #

I also agree with you and really it is nice post and thanks for sharing it.

James 04 Mar 2009 #

Why are developers wasting their time crying about this. Really think about it who reads this stuff and many of the articles in the same vain? Other developers, are there other developers that are still using IE6? Probably not, unless they have a dumb corporate rule that says they have to. The average user isn't reading these posts and you are just count sand particles at the beach, preaching to the choir, beating a dead horse, etc...

Janko 07 Mar 2009 #

James: I wouldn't say it's a waste of a time. My clients can read stuff like this, for example. And it might help developers as an argument for convincing clients to upgrade. The more articles, the stronger arguments.

Todd 11 Mar 2009 #

It's best not to get 'religious' about the issue.

Most people in the world don't care which browser they are using.

If you are running a business or need the most 'eyes' on your sight, then you must support IE 6.0. The w3schools stats are biased towards web developers... in the real world, IE6 is still almost the dominant browser.

It's stupid not to support it, unless you don't care that many normal people (not nerds) will see your web site.

Not everybody likes Firefox (I like IE8 in Windows 7), and if a site doesn't support it, I won't go there, I won't buy products from that site. Period.

Janko 11 Mar 2009 #

Todd: It is absolutely your choice not to buy a product or whatever, as much as it is my choice not to support all browsers. Especially due to the fact that behind dropping the support for IE6 is the wish to push things forward.

Web Design Manchester 11 Mar 2009 #

Janko: It might be your choice not to support all browsers, but would your client make the same choice if it means losing customers with a similar mindset to Todd?

Janko 11 Mar 2009 #

Web Design Manchester: Actually, I wrote this with customers in my mind: this way I make a recommendation just to upgrade. I do it regularly, so why not support it with an article?

Marc 15 Mar 2009 #

Hmm, well, it's not just the fact it doesn't support standards, it's the fact it's insecure compared to every other browser on offer, it's just a shoddy piece of software overall. The only reason anyone uses it is because MS provide it with windows.

If you had spent as much time as I had trying to get various AJAX methods to work properly in IE6, you too would dislike it.

Todd, I love you're ability to make sweeping and contradictory statements, keep it up!

'It's best not to get 'religious' about the issue.'

'Not everybody likes Firefox (I like IE8 in Windows 7), and if a site doesn't support it, I won't go there, I won't buy products from that site. Period.

Hmm

izmir web tasarım 16 Mar 2009 #

ohh thats
turkey together take explorer, ım look for next time firefox win this racing
thanks for post
good working
turkish " iyi çalışmalar"

Webdesign Meppel 23 Mar 2009 #

Agree with you on one hand... on the other hand I don't... I would love to stop supporting ie6 and leave it all behind but imo it's a bit to soon. Still almost 1 on 5 people use it and that's quite a lot. I think websites must at least by useable in ie6. If they're no fully functional, okay, can live with that.

Love your footer by the way

MajareQ 20 Apr 2009 #

Yeah! Polish IE 4 :]
About that, how much IE is wrong, should be teaching at school an talking in all talk shows ;)

Regards.
Grzegorz J. Karwaszewski

Dan 21 Apr 2009 #

Although I agree everyone should throw IE6 away, remember that W3Schools is for developers and they take their statistics from their website usage. So Firefox will obviously be much higher as most developers visiting the site will prefer to use it.

Chris 07 May 2009 #

The problem isn't generally Joe Public not upgrading, its companies. When people surf from work, they usually don't get to pick what browser they can use.

Clarice 08 May 2009 #

Well, it's about time!!!! I dont know why they just disable the old technology, forcing ppl to upgrade!

fotomanijak 02 Jun 2009 #

Just to add up some photo, only proper use of IE
www.flickr.com/photos/fotomanijak/2297619191/
Unfortunately just too many users, on Serbian market at least, are still using IE6.
For example, general public site - svet.rs, about 30% of users are still using IE6 as their browser.

Michael 12 Aug 2009 #

Janko I love your site and tuts but dropping ie6 support all together seems a little irresponsible to me.

This has probably been said already but as much as I hate ie6 and goto bed shaking my angry fist at the thing and thinking of ways similar to this to bring down ie6, advising clients against supporting ie6 seems to me to be not so good in practice.

I work on a site that gets a fair bit of traffic - around 120,000 unique visits per month. 18.3% of people have viewed the site with ie6. It's an essential service so accessibility is very high on our list.

Not supporting the browser would turn away over 20,000 visitors per month!
I would expect the vast majority of these hits to come from people on corporate networks who have no way of being able to upgrade their browser.

Lennart Sauter 26 Aug 2009 #

I didn't drop the IE 6 support for all my site as they do partly reach 40% of pageview from IE6.

I think everybody should watch his stats before following the mainstream of dropping IE

Kind regards
Lennart Sauter

Ivan Minic 27 Aug 2009 #

The key problem are people who are forced by their working envoirment to use the system as-is, without any new programs installed...
Or it would be better to say that their superiors are the problem, not realising how big security threat is the fact that they force people to use IE6.

fractalbit 08 Sep 2009 #

I was thinking about this 2-3 days ago. I was saying to myself "Please someone make a worm that infects every computer on earth with ie6 and auto upgrades it to IE8" or "Let's make a global move so every major website display a freaking pop up to force ie6 users to upgrade". We are not to this point yet, but steps have been made. Hey let's make a startup to bring ie6 to death, it would be very popular, we could make a fortune out of this!

$fractalbit$

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