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Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 disappears from the US

by Alistair Lowe on 4 January 2012, 10:09

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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Brought into the world in 2001 and at the time a seemingly great innovation, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 web-browser soon became a thorn in the backside of web-developers across the world. For the end-user, the browser was riddled with security flaws and lacking next-gen features such as tabs and full HTML5 support; for the web-developer, the browser lacked standards compliant support for CSS version two, the styling script used to layout a page, resulting in developers having to write special workarounds and spend significant extra time on making their sites IE 6 friendly.

Due to some incredible oddity, or perhaps, that end-users and businesses alike weren't too keen on upgrading, Internet Explorer 6 has remained a prevalent browser in the market for over 10 years, forcing web developers to continue to dedicate time and resources to the browser and exposing end-users to security risks and increasing levels of webpage incompatibility.

Fairly recently popular sites, such as Google and Facebook, dropped support for the old browser, both to make the life of their developers easier and to move users away from IE 6, joining the fight to see the browser go was Microsoft itself, who began a webpage, www.ie6countdown.com, breaking-down the remaining percentage of IE 6 users across each territory, with the aim of reducing IE 6 usage to below one per cent across the world.

Internet Explorer 6 Countdown

Last month, the US finally joined the likes of Austria, Norway and Finland in reducing its user base to below the one per cent line. Many countries are now not far behind, with most, like the UK, lagging as businesses and governments consider moving browsers a considerable costing exercise, as security risks would need re-evaluating, despite IE 6 coming from a generation of browsers not focused on security and reports of many outstanding security holes.

For less obvious reasons, usage of IE 6 in the Far East remains relatively high, with countries such as India and Japan still reporting over a five per cent user base, with China well above the trend of the rest of the world with over one in four still using the antiquated browser, however the US was a large market, and with the rest of the world, bar China, likely to follow trend in 2012, it truly appears as though IE 6 will be removed from mainstream web development sometime this year, which will likely prove the year in which the browser is officially pronounced as, dead.

Web-developers rejoice.



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

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hexus
…businesses and governments consider moving browsers a considerable costing exorcise.

iswydt.

:D
Repressor
iswydt.

You mean, using a spell checker instead of properly proof-reading the article…? :devilish:

Due to some incredible oddity, …

You mean like a lot of companies and public services having custom, mission-critical web-apps written in the early noughties by lazy developers? Developers who wrote apps using non-standards-compliant methods that *only* worked in IE6 instead of writing standards-compliant applications? Meaning those companies and services couldn't move away from IE6 because those critical apps would fail miserably in any other browser (including IE7 in compatibility mode, oddly enough)?

I'd certainly call it odd, although I'm not sure it qualifies as an incredible oddity…
scaryjim
You mean, using a spell checker instead of properly proof-reading the article…? :devilish:



You mean like a lot of companies and public services having custom, mission-critical web-apps written in the early noughties by lazy developers? Developers who wrote apps using non-standards-compliant methods that *only* worked in IE6 instead of writing standards-compliant applications? Meaning those companies and services couldn't move away from IE6 because those critical apps would fail miserably in any other browser (including IE7 in compatibility mode, oddly enough)?

I'd certainly call it odd, although I'm not sure it qualifies as an incredible oddity…

Not spell checker or proof-reading, just a little mild dyslexia (and perhaps subconscious thoughts) :)

By oddity, I mean this because IE6 only apps don't likely explain China or less recent trends, where there were still many end users on IE6. Also, the vast majority of IE6 legacy programs do function perfectly on newer versions of IE, certainly 7 and 8; I'm also drawing from my experience from speaking with various IT managers as to their concerns, the primary one was that they believe they'd have to fund employee training for a new browser.
I expect China's high number is down to pirated copies of Windows? I've heard its easier to buy a PC there with pirated windows than not. With Microsoft preventing installing newer IE on pirated windows its no surprise they still use 6.
Scribe
… I'm also drawing from my experience from speaking with various IT managers as to their concerns, the primary one that they believe they'd have to fund employee training for a new browser.

:O_o1:

Seriously? And these people are IT Managers? Man, I've known some slightly clueless managers in the past, but none that bad!

Certainly 4 - 5 years ago there was a prevailing belief - within public services, at least - that legacy web apps built specifically for IE6 wouldn't work correctly in newer browsers, although I suspect that part of that was the lack of resources for comprehensive testing.