British government sticking with IE6
The British government has refused point blank to upgrade from Internet Explorer 6. Despite a 6,000-strong petition urging it to do so.
Internet Explorer 6 was first released in 2001, making it nine years old. Suffice to say, it’s old, outdated, and not up to scratch at delivering the best Web experience to its users. It’s also, and this is the biggest problem of all, highly vulnerable to malware attacks.
Despite all of these reasons to move on, up, and away from IE6, many people are sticking with it. And big corporations, government departments, and local authorities are amongst the worst offenders.
The British government uses IE6 in all its departments. And it’s not planning to upgrade anytime soon.
According to The Guardian, 6,223 people signed an online petition started by Dan Frydman of Inigo Media Ltd urging the government of the U.K. to change browsers. But it’s a no go, with the government issuing an official response stating why it is sticking with IE6 for the foreseeable future:
It is not straightforward for HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector Internet users.
Which, if I’m not mistaken, is a very short-sighted viewpoint. Granted, the timing is very off, with the new coalition government embarking on huge cuts in each department. And upgrading computer systems is probably way down the list of priorities.
The question that has to be asked however is how much longer this is going to continue for? IE6 is already nine years old, and every year that passes it becomes more outdated and less secure. Microsoft doesn’t want people to continue using Internet Explorer 6, but the message doesn’t seem to be getting through.
If the governments of the world won’t move on, what hope is there for the rest of us?
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August 1st, 2010
Other more enlightened European governments have adopted open source operating systems and yet the silly old Pommies stick with this dinosaur of a web browser, how ridiculous.
August 2nd, 2010
What can I say? Stupid british government