Funeral scheduled for Internet Explorer 6
When an outdated piece of software finally disappears, few people mourn it. But while Internet Explorer 6 may no longer have much popularity, it really is getting a send-off.
A Web design firm is holding a mock funeral at its offices on March 4 to commemorate what it’s calling the death of the browser. (If their professional services are as creative as their publicity stunts, they should do well.) Though IE6 will still technically be usable, Aten Design Groups has issued a mock death notice marking the date of Google’s official withdrawal of support for the browser in its Apps and Docs product:
Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.
The Google withdrawal will be extended on March 13 when there will no longer be any guarantee that YouTube will work on the browser.
Given these events, you’d be forgiven for thinking IE6 was now an obscure browser. In fact it’s still used by roughly 20 percent of Web users and is even used by some government departments in the U.K. Those who want to see it disappear mainly include security advocates and designers.
The security flaws of version 6 are well documented, most notably the way it was the route by which hackers recently broke into Google’s system in China. For developers, the site ie6nomore.com puts it plainly:
Working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time. Beyond that, IE 6′s support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the web back.
Of course, version 6 will only truly die out when people stop using it. But the more that commonly used Web sites and services stop being compatible with it, the quicker that will happen.
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February 25th, 2010
It’s not so much web sites that would keep IE6 alive, it’s internal corporate browser apps that are poorly written such that they can’t run on a newer IE or a standards compliant browser. Until those apps are killed off or upgraded, there will remain MILLIONS of IE6 users around the world no matter how much Google or these fools might wish to see it go bye bye.
February 26th, 2010
There’s also another reason why IE6 stays in use – lazy government administrators that will not issue an edict to enforce upgrades.
I work in the public sector of South Australia, where we are compelled to use IE6 on government PCs. During the recent Google/Chinese hackers/Internet Explorer incident, I raised the issue of IE6 use with the IT dept of the agency I work for.
The reply came back as this: “We agree wholeheartedly with you about IE6, but we are mandated by State Govt policy to use IE6 as the default browser”. This was followed by an invitation to take the matter up with an executive manager. Clearly, the IT dept were sick of banging their heads against a wall of ignorance and naivety.
This is happening in a supposedlt tech-savvy country like Australia. How bad must it be in other parts of the world?