Moving beyond Explorer 6

March 24, 2011 | Posted by Dan Rigby

The internet and capabilities of browser's have grown by leaps and bounds in the last 10 years. Yet, for what ever reason, some people are still using Internet Explorer 6, a 10 year old browser. Be it stubborn IT people in corporations or government or users just not knowing any other option, it's important for them to upgrade and tell others as well. For it's time IE 6 was a good browser but that time has past. You've probably upgraded your computer in that time so why not upgrade your browser.

So at FLIPP, unless the client requests specifically to support it, we're telling our users to do just that. Check out our site in IE 6, and you'll get our friendly "upgrade your browser page". Many of the big companies including YouTube and Facebook have already started giving their IE 6 users a friendly upgrade message. Microsoft has even started their own campaign to kill the browser. ie6countdown.com is their latest effort to encourage users to upgrade.

Why upgrade?

Security - as of a year ago, there were still 24 unpatched vulnerabilities that will never be fixed. IE 7 and 8 have known issues as well.

Poor support of web standards - For the web and web technologies to grow, browsers need to embrace web standards. That way they can all grow together and ensure quality, security and universal functionality.

Reliability and capabilities - Minimize or completely eliminate crashes, pop ups, and other disruptions while you browse.

Development Hacks and Work-arounds - The amount of time, hacks and work-arounds developers have to go through to make things work on this browser would probably surprise most. Think of it as using ancient construction techniques and patches to build a modern, efficient home.

Usability - There are numerous innovations in newer versions of IE or other browsers that will make your experience much easier and more enjoyable. Tabbed browsing, speed improvements and stability are just the beginning.

IE 9 - Microsofts latest and greatest

Microsofts browsers have been a target of web developers over their different versions. IE 7 wasn't much better than IE 6 and IE 8 saw small improvement but didn't quite hit the mark. Now with IE 9's release last week everyone was hoping that those days were over. In many instances, they are but it's not perfect. There are still some layout bugs, hit and miss html5/css3 support, and lack of support for windows XP (the main install base for IE6 users). To Microsofts credit though they have listened to the developer community for many important things, including better standards support, and have created a more open and transparent dialog within the development community. Hopefully this communication will help improve the browser and fully bring it into the same "modern browser" class as its counterparts.

Take the next step

Really, we're not just a bunch of stubborn techie jerks. We just want to make everyone's online lives a bit easier, safer and more enjoyable. For us, developing websites and web applications for a 10 year old product isn't productive and is really holding back the growth of our industry. If you or your friends or family are still using IE 6, please tell them to upgrade and educate them on why they should. Help spread the word and help get Canada under the 1.0% mark. Let's tackle IE6 then onto IE7...

We recommend these browsers :

Firefox
Chrome
Safari
If you must, Explorer 9