Paul Carbo Web Design & Development

I probably should have done this a while ago, but I have officially given up on Internet Explorer 6, and will no longer be considering it while designing and developing my sites.

I went back and forth with this for a while now. Both sides of the argument have very valid points. On one hand, I feel like this one program has been severely stunting the growth of the whole web design and development industry and should be totally disregarded based on that fact alone. Where would we be right now if this problem never existed?

However, there’s a reason for it’s persistence. Without even touching on the issue regarding the early monoplization of Microsoft and how things ended up this way, the problem is no longer Microsoft’s. The problem is that one group of completely un-web-savvy people who are innocently unaware of the situation, are probably still using the first computer they were able to afford, and think that the way sites look when they are “surfing the net” is just the way they are supposed to look. We can’t blame them though, they don’t know any better. I am sure if they did, they would be more than willing to improve their internet experience. It’s not like they are IE6 loyalists refusing to upgrade out of spite, simply to make my day that much more frustrating. At least I hope not.

I was very interested in doing some research and finding out just how many people make up this group. I quickly came across w3schools.com’s Browser Statistics. I’ve seen this numerous times before but hadn’t given it the attention that I did now.

Here is my take on their data.

Now, they do claim that these findings may not be 100% accurate because of other sources coming up with very different different results, but due to my trust in the W3C, and strictly for argument’s sake, I will assume these stats are as accurate as they could be.

I was pretty surprised to see that there are still so many people using IE6. I expected a much bigger majority to be using IE7. To me, what is most important here is the consistent (and inevitable) month-to-month decline for every version of Internet Explorer that goes right along with, what seems to be, the exponential increase for every other browser besides IE. Well, not so much for Safari and Opera who are very slow climbers, but that’s to be expected.

I also find it confusing that so few are using IE8, which isn’t all that bad of a browser… at least compared to it’s predecessors. I haven’t really used IE other than for cross-browser compatibility for a good 5 or 6 years now, so I don’t pay too much attention to all that goes on with it, but do they just lack a feature that let’s the user know it’s time to upgrade to the most recent version? Do you have to turn on automatic updates or doesn’t this feature exist at all? I know I have to turn off updates in XP if I want my system to run properly (irony’s funny). How did they ever let it get to a point where they have three, count ‘em, three fully different versions of their web browser being used at one time by this many people? And one of them is almost 10 years old! For Christ’s sake, Firefox pretty much forces me to constantly stay current. If I ever wanted to avoid upgrading Firefox, I’d have to change settings. If not, they make sure I am always up to date. Same goes for pretty much any kind of program or application at all. Right now, actually, Wordpress is kindly asking me to upgrade to v2.82. If I don’t, I will be reminded to every single time I log in. Even things as minor as my plugins are always letting me know when a slightly newer version is available. And rightly so. Developers don’t spend the time upgrading their applications because they’re bored, they are fixing bugs and security issues and ultimately, it’s in my best interest to remain current on all the applications I use, especially the ones I use on daily basis.

A little foresight could have went a long way here, but Microsoft doesn’t seem to subscribe to the notion of thinking ahead. It’s not like any good comes from having three browsers to tend to, especially when one of them is just flat-out obsolete. It’s to be expected from them I guess. I still use XP, and never once thought of switching to Vista, and won’t switch to 7 until I have no other choice. So now, just like their browser cluster-fuck, they will have three totally different operating systems being used at once. Doesn’t this triple their workload? Come on! I don’t get it! Maybe I am missing something here, but how does a company with so many resources seem to screw up so badly? There’s just no excuse for it. They can’t be totally oblivious. Someone there has to be somewhat aware that just like GM, if you continuously put out junk, it doesn’t matter how big you are, you will eventually fail. Instead of trying, and miserably failing, to be a competitor in the search engine market, they should have been devising a way to eradicate any version of IE previous to 8. They still hold almost half of the market share. Surely, consolodating to one browser would allow people to more efficiently and productively use the web which would undoubtedly result in good for everyone involved. Think of the growth that could have taken place if they had their shit together. Instead, they get wrapped up in issues of pride and think trying to take on two giants like Google and Apple, at the same time no less, will somehow benefit them. How much time was spent on Bing that could have been spent fixing problems they just seem to ignore? How much freaking money was spent on corny marketing campaigns that could have been spent on much more productive things like perfecting an operating system so that you didn’t have to be a computer genius in order for your computer to run properly?

I’ve gone way off topic here but I just can’t help being frustrated by the situation. It is 2009 and 15% of people are using an 8 year old version of their web browser, while 7% are actually using the one that’s current. It’s just pitiful.

All of that brings me to the center of my dilemma. Do I just completely ignore 15% of internet users? Or do I continue to waste time and energy making things work for a system that shouldn’t even exist, all while prolonging the process of this problem going away? That’s the whole issue I have. By adhering to and cooperating with this ridiculous situation, I am only adding to the problem. As is every other designer/developer who feels forced into pleasing the sad group that makes up that 15%.

I ultimately came to my conclusion by approaching the situation on a more personal level. What will I lose if I decide to stop supporting IE6? I am a freelancer who has bills that need to be paid every month. Initial thinking would tell me it’s bad business practice to brashly eliminate 1/7 of potential clients. However, giving it a little more thought led me to ask myself, is this 15% really as important as I think of them to be? Are they the same kind of 15% as Firefox users as far as potential business? Hell no. The type of people who are still using an 8 year old browser are probably not the people who will ever be needing my services, and if by chance they ever do, they are probably not the type of people that would make for a good, profitable, enjoyable client. So, because of this revelation, I have officially decided to ignore all users of Internet Explorer 6. Well, I won’t totally ignore them, it’s not like they can’t view my site. I still will try and make sure elements are where they are supposed to be, but if my pngs don’t display nicely for them, oh well. Also, if future clients insist on making their site IE6 compatible, I will be forced to charge an added fee.

Instead of leaving users of IE6 clueless, I figured it would be good to educate them if I could. So I implemented a little message for anyone using IE6 to view my site. I’ve seen this around here and there, but I originally learned of it from Meagan Fisher and her Owltastic re-branding. Just a little bit of CSS in an IE6 specific sheet, which I aptly named “iesucksass.css”, and I replaced my Featured Projects images with an image that will be impossible to miss if you are using IE6.

I set it up so when they hover over the message, a second message pops up providing them with a little more information on the topic. There’s no loss of function, they can still click to open up my portfolio, so long as they haven’t disabled JavaScript.

I feel this is a fair way to approach the situation and would love to see everyone else start jumping on board. It’s proactive. We aren’t just shunning those who don’t know any better, we are educating them, which will only contribute to this problem going away faster than it would naturally. It’s all we owe them at this point. It’s all we owe the situation as well. There comes a point where you just have to take control and not remain static, patiently waiting for things to happen as you would like them to. Adding display:inlines and pngfixes definitely doesn’t help the situation, it really only adds to the problem. Designers and developers have a lot of influence over web content and the overall state of web design. We should start making that responsiblity work in our favor.

Think about it. No more hacks, no more griping on message boards, no more f-bombs and fist waving. It’s a liberating feeling actually, envigorating as well. Sort of comparable to leaving an abusive relationship. For so long, you just think that this is the way it is and that there’s no other option. That you’ll just have to keep on being unhappy from day to day and there isn’t anything you can do about it. Then one day you realize that it doesn’t have to be this way. You realize that you have the power over yourself and if you don’t like the situation you’re in, you have the power to change it. And when you finally do, you notice so many more possiblities and opportunities present themselves and you’ll wonder why you didn’t make this decision much sooner.

So good riddance IE6. You were a complete waste of my time. Lose my number. It’s been horrible knowing you and I hope to never hear from you, or of you, ever again.