Downfalls of IE6 Development | A Client Perspective
January 28, 2011 | Posted in Client Knowledge, Development
Yes, this is another plea to stop developing websites for IE6. Google, Facebook and Apple have all ditched support for IE6 in most (if not all) areas of their website, and when three of the largest online companies show utter disregard for an extremely dated web browser it is time for others to follow suit.
Many of you will have read this discussion to death, but raising awareness one way or another is only going to help. With that in mind, I wish to aim this article toward those outside of the design/development community. Please forward this note on to those people you know that are making the decisions for their company websites. Or perhaps you can use this as a resource the next time a client asks why your contract says you are only developing for IE7 and above.
Clients
This section is for those debating the pros and cons of developing a site with IE6 compatibility in mind. Search Google for “Benefits to developing for IE6” and not one result on the first page mentions anything positive about it. Let’s look at some of the reasons to avoid this ancient browser:
Time and Cost
When you ask your developer to make the site look the same in IE6 as the more recent versions, you are throwing money away. In short (and with extreme simplification), IE6 reads code differently than most modern browsers. In order to work around this, developers need to implement hacks that sidestep IE6′s quirks. Doing this takes more time, and in turn costs you more.
Big Companies Do Not Support It
Apple just updated their website design and at first it did not look like much, but upon closer inspection, you can see it was developed with HTML5 – the latest version of the classic web coding language. IE6 completely ignores the majority of the new code in HTML5 and can even fail to style the new elements. Take a look at the image to the right for a closer look at what the new Apple site looks like in IE6.
You will notice the alignment is well off from the intended look. Images do not line up in the proper position and transparent images show up with a blue box behind them. The width of certain elements is read incorrectly by IE6 and break the entire layout of the page. If a massive company like Apple no longer spends the time and money keeping out of date users happy, you shouldn’t either.
Google is one of the biggest presences on the web, and it has also decided to drop IE6 support. Not to be outdone, Facebook too announced it would pull the plug on IE6 – at least for its chat function in order to improve the feature.
Why IE6 is Still Around
The major reason IE6 is still used today is that it is the default browser for Windows XP. While personal computer owners are constantly urged by Microsoft to update, company computers do not have this luxury. Major corporations restrict what its employees can use the computers for, and a big part of that is disabling the ability to download new programs – including browsers. The cost to these companies to update all of their operating systems to Windows 7 (or another OS) would be monstrous.
Decision Makers Do Not Use It
This is my personal opinion, but bear with me. I mention above that many large companies use IE6 by default, but that is a generalization focused on the average worker. The company president is probably not using the same computer as an HR rep. If you are reading this and you the one in charge of making website decisions, it is unlikely you are using such an outdated version of Internet Explorer.
My point is to think twice before deciding to appeal to the average corporate user. It is likely that your product or service does not target or even appeal to anyone but the higher-ups at an organization, and they are not going to be using IE6.
Developers
If you are looking for reasons not to continue supporting IE6, take a look at some of these great resources.
- Stop developing for Internet Explorer 6 – Robert’s Talk
- Universal Internet Explorer 6 CSS – for a beautiful web
- The Life, Times (and Death?) of Internet Explorer 6 (Comic Strip) – Smashing Magazine
- Stop Using IE6 or Google Will Abandon You – CSSJockey
2 appreciated comments
Part of the reason companies can’t upgrade is because many of them have internal security tied to IE6 and to upgrade browsers would require a security overhaul – something their traditional IT guy would not be thrilled to do or possibly even capable of doing.
Unfortunately, what Michael has said is entirely correct. XP has been prevalent for so long that the e-security measure many companies have invested in are inherently tied to it and its components – including IE6. Upgrading will come, but not until it’s economically beneficial to do so.
Many businesses are working with securing Windows 7, as XP is no longer being officially supported by Microsoft (to my knowledge), though this is not an easy nor speedy process. That being said, the decision to upgrade on a large scale will come more quickly if web developers such as yourself refuse to develop for outdated systems. Unfortunately, that also leaves you open to losing business in the interim.
I should also note that it’s been my experience that company presidents and CEO’s very much do use the same computer as the HR reps. The security requirements for executive positions can be enormous, given the sensitive and valuable information they handle on a daily basis. It’s often the IT guys who use systems with differing configurations.