Funeral for a f(r)iend
On January 29th, 2010, Google Enterprise Blog announced they would begin phasing out support of Internet Explorer 6 for some features of some services, like Google Docs:
The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively.
The immediate reactions seen in the comments of this announcement showed what many already knew, IE6 is a polarizing character in the web development community. The industry’s (lack of) sentiment regarding the 10 year old browser was further reinforced when a web design agency in Colorado announced they were holding a funeral for IE6, and everyone was invited. Their comment page was also far from reverent:
Pavel is Not Attending.
I cannot say anything good about this browser.
- Source
- http://ie6funeral.com/
The truth is that Internet Explorer 6 is far from dead.
10 years ago, IE6 ushered in the era of modern web design. Some of the new features supported by IE6 were:
- Full CSS Level 1 Support
- Full DOM Level 1 Support
- Auto Image Resize
- Mouse Wheel Events
- Security Zones
- Silently activates Quirks-mode
- Sources
- http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/evaluation/features/default.mspx
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_6
All these points are still true. IE6 still does all of these things.
If the web no longer used CSS, or Dom Level 1, and HTML doctypes were obsolete, then IE6 could be declared dead; but these technologies are still common, and IE6 is still used by and useful to many people browsing the web. Site owners still require developers to fix code for IE6, and have statistics to show that the demographic is still a significant portion of their business. Visiting google.com in IE6 will still get you a search page, and plenty of people who are still using the browser have no idea whether the sites they visit "support" IE6.
But if IE6 is still being used, then why are people so excited?
Because the web is still young, and our workers are being petty and unprofessional. Because they haven’t considered what it will be like when someone who does not understand how to upgrade (or does not have the right permissions) visits their site, and it’s broken. Because they don’t feel like re-writing their style sheets and javascript for IE6 users. Because these web workers are thinking of themselves before their users. Because they are looking for an excuse to be lazy. Because they are looking for someone to tell them it’s okay to stop worrying about IE6, and that nobody is going to be able to use it anymore. Because they think if Google isn’t worried about it, then their client won’t be either.
But they are wrong.
Google is not looking for an excuse to get away from IE6. If they could support IE6 without the overhead of rewriting much of their code to accommodate differences in the browser, they would. If Google’s services were not using advanced techniques that are created primarily with features lacking in IE6, this would not be news. Google is not celebrating their inability to continue supporting IE6 users, because they realize that would be presumptuous and unprofessional. Google knows cutting off users is an unfortunate effect of the cost of web development, not a cake they get for being another year older.
Are some people going to upgrade because of the Google change?
Yes, but many won’t. They will think Google Docs (or any other site that poorly supports their browser) is broken. So, they will look for another service, or software, or platform. If they cannot find another means to get that information, then they are simply abandoned, and the celebratory tone of so many web workers becomes cruel, and in poor taste.
Why celebrate a grandmother that can’t view their grandchild’s schoolwork? Why celebrate someone using a library’s outdated computers, who can’t use a web service to write a letter, or post a resume online?
But if they can, IE6 users will find another place to buy their clothes, or their food, or another way to check their bank balance, or airline miles, or keep in touch with their friends. A way that designers who have abandoned IE6 can’t control, improve, and make better. If they truly believe their skills are serving the user and the client, because they are able to make someone’s web browsing experience better, why would they look to limit that?
How long should IE6 be supported?
IE6 cannot and should not be supported indefinitely. Sometimes, like in Google’s case, it requires too many resources, but sometimes it takes next to nothing. Pixel perfect support for IE6 might be the wrong choice for many sites, but a hard–line decision to stop browser-checking IE6 is short-sighted, because IE6 does an acceptable job of interpreting and displaying most of the technologies used on the web today. The early and unnecessary abandonment of IE6 is a mistake.
In his 2008 article for 24 Ways, Jeremy Keith talked about a sliding scale of support for IE6. Andy Clarke mentioned just that article when announcing his Universal-IE6 CSS. He also mentioned Dean Edwards’ IE7 javascript that improves IE6’s CSS support. These are only a few of the options available to web professionals who care to offer the best possible experience to any given user.
IE6 is not just a set of technologies, but a set of users, a set of people trying to achieve tasks on the web. They are not the web’s most elite users, by far. The mere act of navigating the web is likely an obstacle for many of them. This is a decision to be weighed with care and not hastily celebrated. Web workers who do not recognize this are being short sighted and unprofessional. They are performing a grave disservice to their client, and our industry.
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