Microsoft actively seeking to destroy IE6
Microsoft really, really wants everyone to upgrade up from Internet Explorer 6. However, it isn’t helping that many companies are using the aged Web browser to prevent employees visiting certain sites.
IE6 was pretty damn good when it was released in 2001. Now, not so much. The Web has moved on a huge amount in the nine years since then, and the browsers used to access it have as well. Despite this, over 17 percent of computer users worldwide still connect to the Web using IE6.
There are two main reasons for this: IE6 comes bundled with Windows XP, which still has a 64 percent market share; businesses are reluctant to upgrade.
However, Microsoft is making a concerted effort to persuade people to upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer. In March, Microsoft sent flowers to a funeral for IE6. And earlier this month, the company compared IE6 to a nine-year-old carton of milk.
Ryan Gavin, head of the Internet Explorer business group at Microsoft, told IT Pro:
If you think back to the browsers of five years ago or even the browsers of nine years ago – things like IE6 – one of the things we certainly see, and one of the parts of my role, is that that modern web experience really does require a modern browser. While IE6 was a great browser at the time, part of my job is to get Internet Explorer 6′s share down to zero as fast as humanly possible.
Tough talk, but it’s going to take a huge effort on the part of Microsoft to make this happen. Especially when, according to Microsoft’s Australian chief security adviser Stuart Strathdee, businesses are using the browser as a “sideline security tactic.” He told ZDNet:
[Companies are] happy to stay with IE6 because … a lot of the social networking sites and the sites that they deem are unnecessary for work purposes, they’re not going to render and function properly within [older versions of] IE.
That’s very cynical. Not the viewpoint, but the activity. If indeed that is why businesses are sticking with IE6 then it sucks. And it’s also very short-sighted as using IE6 opens a network up to some serious vulnerabilities.
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May 31st, 2010
Maybe MSFT need to ship some malware of their own to finally kill IE6…maybe then the recalcitrants will be moved on.
My employer, an Australian state government, forces me to use IE6 at work. I have raised the issue with IT Support recently who agreed wholeheartedly with me. Alas they are dictated by policy to use IE6 hence they are powerless until some luddite further up the tree finally wakes up.