Google phasing out support for IE6

[Rik]

The BBC reports that:

Google has begun to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, the browser identified as the weak link in a cyber attack on the search engine.

The firm said from 1 March some of its services, such as Google Docs, would not work "properly" with the browser.

It recommended individuals and firms upgrade "as soon as possible".

That might encourage people to abandon it, though I suspect not with businesses which run bespoke software with it.

[Glenn]

It could cost 3, £100,000's, most of their software runs on IE6, so they would have to update it all.

[Rik]

I wonder what the cost of poor security is for them?

[Simon]

Why do businesses still use it?  Surely it's not that difficult to upgrade? 

[Rik]

It often requires a complete re-write of custom software that was designed to use 'features' in IE6. That's what you get from MS not observing standards...

[zappaDPJ]

It's not the cost of upgrading the browser, it's the more the cost of rewriting internal applications that were written specifically for IE6. [EDIT] As Rik just said above 

It's a huge problem. Another example is forum software, vendors such as vBulletin are moving closer to dropping support for IE6 but in doing so they risk losing customers. Approximately 18% of visitors to my sites still use IE6 and most of my sites run on a vB platform. If I upgrade to the latest version of vB I may well lose those visitors which is something I don't want to do.

[Simon]

I know we had to do some fairly major fiddling to make this forum theme IE6 compatible.

[chrisga]

I know we had to do some fairly major fiddling to make this forum theme IE6 compatible.

That's the other side of the coin.  Although it may cost companies with bespoke  S/W lots to dump IE6, it also costs Web Developers (and by extension companies and their customers) lots to cater for IE6 - Most sites have to have  special code  specifically for IE6 because it is so lousy on W3C compliance. 

On balance I think  IE6 needs to be put out of its misery early by M$ withdrawing  support.  That will encourage  people to move to something viable - Hopefully the recent security issues  will have shifted  a few off it already

[Rik]

We live in hope, but deal with the reality, Chris.

[Glenn]

It still has 4 years left on it's support cycle.

[chrisga]

That is unfortunate.  You can well imagine the  writs flying about if support were to be   withdrawn early !

[Rik]

They'd drive you crackers, wouldn't they. (Think about it...)

[Glenn]

 

[Rik]

[colonelsun]

Well i particularly hate IE 7, it's always crashing. Having said that Vista is a pile of you know what so maybe they're working against each other.

[Rik]

Might be worth trying IE8, Dave.

[colonelsun]

Might be worth trying IE8, Dave.

Heck what am i saying, i think i have IE 8 and not 7. I must have as my computer is only 8 months old.

[Rik]

In that case, get a Mac.

[Glenn]

Windows 8 is rumoured for release in July 2011, so you might get IE9 by then

[colonelsun]

According to my Installed Updates i'm running IE 8. But it's a pile of you know what. Two crashes today which meant yet another reboot to put things right. Heck....puberty was less stressful.

[nowster]

According to my Installed Updates i'm running IE 8. But it's a pile of you know what. Two crashes today which meant yet another reboot to put things right. Heck....puberty was less stressful.

You might want to try an alternate browser like Firefox, Opera or Chrome.