The promotion of Internet Explorer 6′s (IE6) extinction has gained support from an unusual ally. The long-time nemesis of web designers has had a countdown site dedicated to its removal by original creators Microsoft.
Now more than eight years old IE6 has a good run, but with few core updates and an inability to support key web standards, few informed users still use it. Internet Explorer has had an extended shelf live as old legacy software such as internal company intranets have been designed to work exclusively with IE6. Google Chrome now offers an IE6 mode to enable users to be able to still use such software (which isn’t always commercially viable to update) but a wave of anti IE6 support has been growing for a while. Sites such as Bring Down IE6, support the overt use of warning messages to inform users that the time to upgrade is long over due;
“Time to upgrade your browser
If you’re reading this, you’re surfing using Internet Explorer 6, an eight-year-old browser that cannot cope with the demands of the modern internet. For the best web experience, we strongly recommend upgrading”
Whilst many sites no longer test for style discrepancies in IE6. Its failure to support key web standards has for many years forced web designers to spend additional time adding style hacks to make up for these shortfalls. PNG images used for their transparency, aren’t support by Internet Explorer 6 and extra code was often used to replace these images with plainer gifs. But the growth of CSS, with style options such as text shadows, background gradients and opacity now supported by the newer browsers (not supported by early versions of IE) have amplified the gap. In order for web designers to be fully utilising the capabilities of CSS3 and HTML5, IE6 can no longer by cared for. In the words of ‘Bring Down IE6’;
“It’s finally time to take IE6 behind the shed and shoot it”.
Come on China*.
*It is thought that China’s use of less legitimate copies of Windows play some part in this usage spike.
