’10 years ago a browser was born…’
These are the words that open a new Microsoft website called the IE6 countdown. Considering we go to a lot of web development and design conferences around the UK, we hear a lot about IE6. It seems that it exists on special circle of hell, somewhere between wrath and heresy. It’s funny, considering that when it was released in 2001, IE6 was a remarkably good browser. In the 10 years that have passed, subsequent browsers and shifts in design and development have made IE6 a headache to work with and even though it was released 10 years ago, there are people who still use it, whether personally or professionally.
Therefore, Microsoft have launched this site to help people help others to get off of IE6 and upgrade to a more modern browser (why not try IE9?). You can join the cause, by putting IE6 specific banners and buttons on your site that encourage people to get off IE6, there are resources to educate others and there’s a social campaign, with 32 and a half thousand tweets so far telling people that they are doing their part to get IE6 usage down to 1% globally.
It should be an IE countdown. Internet Explorer is an abomination.
“It’s funny, considering that when it was released in 2001, IE6 was a remarkably good browser.”
No, it was a poor browser with very little competition.
IE…..the best browser to download better browsers
I downloaded IE9, and all of the good features were already in Chrome and done way better.
The problem is one of the main things holding back businesses from updating their web browsers is they use Intranet sites built around the HTML caveats in IE 6 and so do not want any updates which will stop their Intranet pages from working properly.
The UK NHS and other Government departments officially announced they will be using IE6 for the next 10 years ago recently I think. That means no B2B or public sector type website can reliably drop ie6 support.
@Jack: That’s not true. Government departments are changing, skipping IE7 and going straight to IE8. It’s a big improvement. There is a lot of custom code out there for IE6, but thankfully, finally, it’s changing.
To the guy that said, “No, it was a poor browser with very little competition” I was around in IT then and my recollection is that Netscape ruled the roost, that MS had underestimated the internet and when they realised how big it was did a U turn and beat the bejaysus out of all the competition out there. More than anything I saw that as a credit to MS’s flexibility and adaptability in a hostile market.
Nice try, Microsoft. Stumbleupon, cool selling out.
I like that i saw this page with Firefox
LOL. Chrome <3
they are right, IE9 is alot better than before. It downloads chrome faster than any previous IE release.