The debate has been going on over the last year or so about the continual support for Internet Explorer 6 – Should it stop or shouldn’t it. Finally this weekend, Google announced that it will begin to phase out support for IE6 as it identified the browser as vulnerable in the recent cyber attacks on Google in China. So it seems we have these attacks to thank for this.
Let me explain – As a developer, IE6 can cause all manner of issues and extra work, and when Microsoft announced last year that it would support it for at least another 5 years, I’m sure I wasn’t the only developer whose heart sank! To support IE6 when developing websites means a lot of extra effort, not to mention the fact that we can’t implement more up-to-date techniques without providing an alternative version for IE6 users.
Aside from this, IE6 has security flaws which haven’t gone unnoticed and it seems hackers made the most of these and were confident enough to attack Google.
So, this announcement from Google is welcomed by me and the rest if the developer community I’m sure, and it seems that now pressure is mounting for the browser to be phased out completely. Can we finally hope that that IE6 will be a thing of the past?
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AskTheBigO commented on 4 February 2010 at 1:06 pm
Not a moment too soon…
Do you know how many users that rely on Jaws or assistive devices need to be running IE6?
I know that the software/hardware is never cheap.
Maybe some pressure should be put on them to offer an upgrade path, to a newer version that supports modern browsers, that they can afford.
David Cook commented on 4 February 2010 at 1:34 pm
In my humble opinion, Google’s announcement is largely irrelevant. It will only affect the small number of home users using Google Docs, who tend to be the kind of people who would be using a more modern browser anyway.
The real issue is that all large organisations use IE6 because the business case for upgrading just isn’t there.
Imagine an organisation such as the Department for Work and Pensions. They have over 100,000 employees.
Consider the loss to productivity for several months as these employees struggled to get to grips with a new browser. Consider the techincal support costs involved in helping users through these problems. Consider the additional knowledge that their technical support and network infrastructure people would need to acquire.
And I don’t buy the security argument either. I’m inclined to agree with the UK government’s official announcement a few days ago that ‘there is no evidence that any fully patched browser is any more secure than any other’. IE6 is the industry standard in big organisations, and therefore staff know how to work with it to maintain high levels of security.
Why would a head of IT or chief information officer spend large amounts of money on upgrading to IE7 or IE8?
Sebastian commented on 4 February 2010 at 4:37 pm
I do see that moving from I6 would be costly but I feel that it’s holding back our community from a creative aspect. If only they some how could just update the rendering engine…… Wait I think they already did(7/8).
Untill the day it leaves, I’ll just handicap my ideas!
Robert commented on 10 February 2010 at 4:49 pm
It’s the same across Education where the machines are locked down and updates take years to happen due to cost. Often the Network teams build packages to be rolled out and this costs money so it can be years and if they remember to include that update.
I’m sure there are many organisations on IE6 for a while yet due to cost.
Klara commented on 1 March 2010 at 4:58 pm
I do not entirely agree with David Cook on the cost of upgrading.
First, what’s wrong with free browsers.
And second, let us consider these 100.000 employees. Are we really talking about a new browser for them? How many of them do use IE6 at home? You won’t tell me that more than 20 percent of these people are computer illiterates that can only handle the precise tasks that they are used to on the job? Because in that case any computer training at all would be a very wise investment indeed.
Robert Stewart commented on 19 May 2010 at 4:42 pm
Thought I’d come back and show the browser fiugres for a site of ours (apr 1 2009 - mar 31 2010) which deals mainly with public sector:
IE 8 15.94%, IE 7 13.73%, IE 6 31.78%, IE 5 3.8%, Firefox 9.64%, Opera 2.56%, Safari 2.13%
IE6 comes out as the top browser.