Could We Stamp Out IE6 More Quickly?
I don’t pretend to like Internet Explorer 6 – in fact quite the reverse – it makes me boiling mad that web developers still have to support an ancient browser. The sooner we can get rid of it, the better. So here’s my little idea…
This article is really just thinking aloud – I’m interested to see what people think, and since my brainwaves always have fatal flaws that I don’t see in advance, interested to see who can point them out. (Incidentally, if you’re familiar with the reasons why IE6 still has market share, you can skip the first half of this article.)
First, a bit of background
So… you’ve just released your latest web app, and you want to support those 25% (or whatever) of users who still use IE6, but you don’t want to spend an inordinate amount of dev time supporting what is a shrinking market.
There have been various suggestions that we should just display some sort of banner pointing the user to browser upgrades or alternatives, but is that always feasible? To my mind there are two main reasons people don’t upgrade from IE6:
- They don’t have administrative rights to do so (for example in a corporate setting);
- They don’t look at or click any upgrade notices, or indeed understand what a browser is.
People in group #1 cannot upgrade or change browser (except Chrome – more later), so suggesting they upgrade is pointless. The people in group #2 simply don’t realise that a browser is a choice, don’t realise that a browser can be changed, andd for many of them, don’t realise their browser is even called ‘Internet Explorer’ – remember that the default setup for most ISPs is to rename the IE shortcut to be something like ‘Click to Launch Bastardo Broadband’. Telling them they can upgrade is just more words on the screen, getting in the way of LOLcats or whatever – “Blah blah blah blah upgrade blah blah, OK / Cancel?” – to which the answer is “Hmmm… well… Cancel I guess – I just want to use the intarweb”.
What’s better than an upgrade option?
Simply put: no mention of the word ‘upgrade’, and no mention of the word ‘option’. Just a done deal.
You see, browsers don’t have to install in Program Files, and they don’t have to install via a lengthy and pointless install wizard. Installers can be short, quick, and not require admin privileges. I’m thinking of Chrome here. (Yes I know Firefox can run from anywhere – but that’s not typical, hence my focus on Chrome).
Instead of a banner vaguely informing users that “they’ve got the wrong browser” and “they could be free” (which are basically insulting and uninteresting statements to them), we just present the statement: “To use this website, click here”.
…Where “here” is a link to a custom Chrome (or other non-admin-install-required browser) installer, which does the following:
- Quick EULA, in case Mrs Miggins (aka “the user”) tries to sue Google;
- Browser security pop-up, which we can’t (and shouldn’t) change;
- Shows a progress window, showing install progress;
- Places a shortcut on the desktop which launches your website in Chrome;
- Finally, executes said shortcut, displaying your website in Chrome.
And so, with two clicks of “OK”, the user is now happily viewing your web app. (And who knows, maybe they’ll start using Chrome for other browsing?)
Any thoughts?
You don’t use IE6 as your main browser?!
Unfortunately, the corporate market is huge. Take Devon County Council – they have thousands of users all standardised on locked-down XP/IE6 PCs. Even developers cannot (easily) install IE7. You can understand the reasons: software updates are a huge undertaking and many older web systems need rigorous testing and updating.
Then there are the users who never trust upgrades – whether it’s for Windows, their virus scanner, or whatever. I’ve seen many people who click no/cancel to everything without reading what the box says. I think MS have inadvertently created pop-up box fatigue!
Even Microsoft want IE6 phased out. However, there are lots old PCs out there with XP SP1 or lower (or pirated copies). IE7’s been out for two and a half years and I suspect it’s reached saturation point. We’ll probably get the situation where most IE7 users switch to IE8, but IE6 users carry on regardless – no matter what we do to promote alternatives.
IE6’s market share will naturally drop when people buy new PCs. Unfortunately, Even IE5/5.5 has a 1% market share – Opera only has a little more than that!
There are some high-profile websites that have dropped IE6 support, but the majority could never refuse 1 in 4 visitors. The death of IE6 is some way off yet.
Why not sign a petition and write a letter to Microsoft demanding they donate their time to create easy development environment for IE6, particularly for Mac developers where you either need an emulator, an alternative PC or DarWine (which doesn’t fully replicate IE6).
An open letter to Microsoft. Since you have caused the development community so much time (and therefore money), you should fix the development issue.
A simple program to allow testing, debugging and so forth. Obviously, this will never happen because MS needs to spend more money on failed marketing campaigns to repair an image that is well deserved.
Sorry, IE6 makes me angry.
While I’m all for wiping out IE6, how would one differentiate between this type of silent upgrade and a malware link/install? How much would this sequence of events harm your public image?
In our corporate environment, we still have workstations / servers that are running Windows 2000 due to hardware limitations, licensing costs and other reasons. IE6 is the latest version that will run on that OS.
Our developers are writing for Windows only and using activex, .net, active directory, etc. they write systems that only work in IE. Trying to switch to a different browser is limited by the in house apps that the company is depending on and the availability of resources.
It amazed me how many of our in house apps “broke” when we moved to IE7. Thankfully that has been resolved and about 85% of our desktops are now on IE7, but it’s been a HUGE pain.
As a starter webdesigner, I’m working with ways to develop websites that are so utterly basic that a browser cannot possibly misinterpret my HTML, which is great for me so far. I realise though, that IE6 is a major pain in the ass. It doesn’t even have transparent .png support (I believe?) which even I have had trouble dealing with in the past. The fact it can be solved with simple cut-and-paste script is bad enough already.
Microsoft is all to blame for this. They abuse their monopoly position to force users into using IE. They are about to get sued in Europe for this very fact, and might even be forced to disconnect IE from their operating system, because so far it has been connected with Windows and cannot be (okay, with much difficulty it can) uninstalled.
The only way to abolish IE6, and IE altogether (because the browser is shit, no matter which version) is to ban microsoft from pre-installing THEIR web browser into their OS’s and to provide a simple, user friendly HTML-based article that informs the user of different webbrowsers and which of them is ideal for them, after which they can choose which of them to install and use as their primary browser.
Think of it as a wizard they have to run to install their browser, which they can later use to unintall and choose a different one as their primary browser.
Luckily IE6 users are hardly the market that most websites have to appeal. To suggest 1 in 4 visitors on your site use IE6 is bizarre, because computer illiterate (the number 2 group in your list) hardly use the internet like most people today. In fact, they are the same group that use powerpoint to create lame presentations involving cats and stupid jokes, and the most daring thing they’ll do with a computer is send an e-mail. I do not care for these people, and thank god most of them are baby-boomers that will be in an (offline) home for the elderly.
Sorry for that last paragraph, mum & dad.
just make fewer features for ie6. build the litest site
user that can upgrade will do so if they want the full experience.
user that is unable to upgrade will get the information they look for but with the cost of missing the action – aka the design and fancy layout.
I would like to see someone create a virus that deletes IE6 from peoples computers and replaces it with something better. Can someone do that please?