Say Goodbye to IE6... Very Soon

Written by Kevin Liew on 01 Mar 2010
26,906 Views • Web Development

Introduction

Great News! I have been waiting for this moment for a while so I think I would make a post just for the sake of it. I know Google announced this on late January, they said they will stop supporting some of the products on March onward. Google Docs and Google Sites will be the first and youtube on 13 of March!

This is such a great news, all the time, we have been waiting for someone to make the move that could lead us. With the influential of Google, I believe it will stimulate the pace of phasing out old browsers.

The first old browser that came to my mind was the ridiculously outdated IE6. We have such a great technologies out there, but because of IE6, we have to hold back. We can't use background position with transparent PNG and it doesn't support new CSS standards! Too much of IE6 hacks decrease the performance of the website and increase the development and testing times.

Youtube Upgrade your browser message

According to the survey from Digg, there are 5 reasons why users don't want to upgrade to IE6. Interestingly, most of the users don't have a choice.

  • 7% - I can't upgrade because my computer runs an old version of Windows (2000, ME, or 98)
  • 37% - I can't upgrade because I don’t have administrator access on my computer.
  • 33% - I can't upgrade because someone at work says I can't.
  • 17% - I don't feel a need to upgrade.
  • 7% - I prefer IE6 to other browsers.

Okay, back to the bright side, apparently, Google isn't the first, some of the websites have already cutting the support of IE6 long time ago. The list will definitely grow longer within this year, 2010 is the year to abandone IE6!

Facebook Upgrade your browser message

The Alternatives

Well, if you're still using IE6, please update your browser and if it's your ICT department's fault, complaint about it! :)

Mozilla Firefox 3.0+

Google Chrome 4.0+

Safari 3.0+

Opera 10+

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+

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11 comments
Daniel Bidmon 15 years ago
I hope that nobody supports IE6 anymore in near future. This will be a huge step further for developers.
Thanks for your article.
Reply
dlv 15 years ago
lovely news !!!!!

thanks for share this !!
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Web Design Kent 15 years ago
I have both IE6 and Foxfire on my computer. I absolutely detest Foxfire. It slow, awkward and unctrollable. I hate to see iE6 being deleted. I tried IE8, but that required a technician having to work on my computer. They will lose my business. I do review new CD’s, then decide which I wish to spend money to purchase. It will cost entertainers some cash.
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Mark 15 years ago
I've been waiting for this day for years. I find it pretty sad that 60%+ of people can't switch because of their IT department/non-administrative rights.

Shouldn't their IT departments/administrators be taking their companies into future technologies? Not just answering questions here and there about why their new keyboards won't work... I thought all those in IT knew about IE6's problems. Apparently not!

Regardless, this is one huge victory for web designers and developers alike. Cheers!
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SeanJA 15 years ago
This post is quite premature as IE6 will be supported until 2014...
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cancel bubble 15 years ago
YouTube video is Flash (this is why people visit YouTube). IE6 supports Flash. So what are they turning off and how exactly is this dropping IE6 huge news?
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VINIT PRATAP SINGH 15 years ago
Great news!! i really suffering to manage website according to all new and old browser.. especialy ie6... in short word ie6 killed me very soon... if it is not out from all computer across world
Reply
muthu 15 years ago
That was a great news for us i think its a warning bell for IE they still have to improve a lot because of them number of web application not get upgrading so take serious action do more convenient for users as well as for IT people
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hosting indonesia 15 years ago
I no longer use IE6 on development.
Reply
myst 15 years ago
dropped ie6 support on my site too
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alex 15 years ago
Does product play a major role ,or is technic foce the company follow the feet of world?
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