IE6 End of Life
- The Web: The Technology
O'Reilly Radar has a post with graphics related to the recent study of people using older, insecure browsers. At a glance we can easily see that most of the problem occurs with Internet Explorer, most likely IE6.
If Wikipedia is correct, IE6 was released on August 27, 2001. Come this August 27th that makes this browser seven years old, far older than most software supported by most organizations.
If we apply the same longevity to other software that's been applied to IE6, all those who are using IE6 must still be using Windows 2000, the first release of the Mac OS X, Photoshop 3.x, a dial-up modem, AOL for chat, Yahoo for search, most of your applications are on the desktop, most of your backend processes are on a Sun or IBM mainframe, probably in Java, and probably using the JRE 1.3 or so. If you're using a database, it's most likely Oracle 7.x or SQL Server 2000. If you're developing for the web, you're most likely still using Perl and CGI, if not Java, or ASP. You might be using some Python or PHP, definitely no Ruby or Rails. If you are developing using Visual Studio, it's Visual Studio 6, and you're still not ready for .NET
You do your social networking through Usenet or AOL, Epinions, The Wall, or some other online BBS or forum. You can write over 140 characters. When you publish to the web, you're hand editing your web pages, or using a freebie HTML editor, Macromedia's DreamWeaver, Vignette, or some other larger commercial product. You might be using Blogger, though it's doubtful. You might be using a syndication tool, though it's doubtful. In fact, it's doubtful that you would be reading this.
At one time, IE6 was the best there was, but that was a long time ago. We've used it when it was shiny and new, and it brought us innovation and delight. We used it through its usefulness, when it became more anchor than step. We've used it until we now curse its name. We continue to use it because no one seems to be willing to say, "It's over".
We should celebrate what Internet Explorer 6 brought us at one time, by letting it go. I think that August 27, 2008 would make a fine EOL date for this once great browser.
Comments
Would be nice, but it's not going to happen, and here's why. IE6 is the default browser shipped with Windows XP. You can still (for a little while longer, at least) buy a computer with Windows XP installed, or a retail copy of Windows XP at your local computer emporium (I still notice them at my local Target, even). You can conclude by this that IE6 is still a current browser. I don't want to, and you don't want to, but the "you" there really means "Microsoft". XP will not be available as a product, but support for it will go on for many, many years before it is officially EOLed.
Want to know something even more terrifying? Windows 2000 is still supported. Microsoft has promised to continue support for W2K until at least January 1, 2010. The default browser that shipped with Windows 2000 was IE 5.01. From Microsoft's perspective, they're still supporting W2K, so they're still supporting IE 5, because it was part of Windows 2000. In the Microsoft article I linked to, they recommend that users update to IE6SP1, but don't force the issue, in exactly the same way that they don't force the issue for XP users by automatically updating them to use IE7. So IE 5.01 is still being supported by Microsoft.
Interestingly, IE 5.5 was not a default browser shipped with any operating system, and my understanding is that it's not supported by Microsoft any more.
The silver lining in this is that you may note that no sane web developer still supports IE 5, so the fact that Microsoft still supports it doesn't mean that it has a meaningful user base. So we can hold out hope that IE 6 will eventually come to the same fate, and the sooner the better. But it's going to be officially supported by Microsoft for a long, long time.
I don't expect Microsoft to let it go, but I'd like to think the rest of us can let it go. Microsoft hates to use the words "browser switch" because the company is afraid people will be encouraged to switch to a completely different browser, and not a new version of IE.
BTW, I bet most of the people going out of their way to buy Windows XP are the type to download another browser.
Actually, that was the heyday of my Blogger use. :) Oh, so long ago, when you couldn't say "blog" to a non-techie w/out going into this long friggin' explanation about what the hell a blog was.
Before all the money hungry bloodsuck...before anyone cared what a blog was but the few of us who blogged.
I started on Blogger late 2001 then switched to my own server in April 2002. It seems like an eternity. At least it was real back then before web politics, or rather money grubbers, destroyed it.
I've got a fortune 5 client that has IE6 baked into about 30,000 Win XP desktops. No idea what their strategy for promoting upwards is.
I've worked for big corporations. Isn't there an intranet with automatic software updates in place to be able to update all the workstations at a staged time? Most of the larger companies I worked for did have software upgrades built into their infrastructure.
Regardless, I would think the company would rather plan to upgrade in a controlled manner than upgrade in desperate haste when the next killer bug is discovered for IE6.