

Microsoft finally urging users to upgrade from IE6 - suprgeek
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10406468-264.html

======
Elepsis
"Finally"? What about the much-maligned contest in Australia that encouraged
people to upgrade? What about the "Browser for the Better" program that gave
out meals to the poor for every user who upgraded to IE8? What about the
prompts to upgrade to IE8 on most Microsoft web properties over the past half
a year?

More like the author "finally" noticed.

~~~
charlesmarshall
I think my favourite anti ie6 is google landing page with the big download
chrome image.

Just a shame so many ie6 people have IT overlords that mandate its use ..
hopefully that will change as more convert to windows 7.

------
there
i watched their commercial on youtube and didn't see anything that would "urge
a user to upgrade from ie6".

how many computer-illiterate people even know what version of ie they're
using? they see the blue ie icon and assume whatever they have on their
computer is what it's being mentioned in the commercial. and worse, they
probably see all these safety features in the commercials and think they're
even safer now.

microsoft needs to take more drastic steps to force users to upgrade. if
windows' automatic updates haven't upgraded ie for them by now, they should
put some kind of interstitial ad on msn and team up with yahoo (or whatever
most of these users are using as their homepage) to explain (with big scary
pictures) that their ie version is out of date and that they should upgrade.

~~~
lmkg
> how many computer-illiterate people even know what version of ie they're
> using?

This is important. Remember, most people don't even know what a browser is.
Internet Explorer is very cleverly named: people don't think they're opening a
browser, they think they're opening the internet.

~~~
RevRal
>This is important. Remember, most people don't even know what a browser is.
Internet Explorer is very cleverly named: people don't think they're opening a
browser, they think they're opening the internet.

It is funny that you say this. Today, I'm visiting a friend and his family.
His grandma asked his sister: "what is the internet."

And her response was pretty much: "it is simple. Let me explain. It is so you
can do research for homework, watch videos, and read email."

Up until today, I've only heard of such ignorance about the internet, but
never have I seen it.

My first thought was: "wow, it is like that HN submission about how if you ask
a kid why the sun exists, their response would be, "to make things grow.""

We cannot separate external experience from self without effort, a bit of
training, and some self awareness. Something the laymen rarely wants to do.
Mistaking their initial reactions as true to the world, since it is apparently
true to them. The internet experience is only one example of this.

------
texel
I'm dubious that any campaign of this sort could be anything other than
marginally effective. The real holdouts that I'm worried about aren't staying
with IE6 out of ignorance, it's a matter of financial necessity. Internal and
business-specific apps are holding back a lot of these upgrades. If you have
to choose between a $50,000+ development investment and staying on an outdated
browser, most IT departments are going to maintain the status quo.

This is why I think Chrome Frame is such a good solution- you get all the
benefits of a modern browser, without having to immediately invest in updates
to essential apps. Of course this also runs the risk of being (understandably)
stymied by Microsoft marketing FUD.

::sigh::

~~~
rbranson
Chrome Frame is great, but there needs to be an official, Microsoft-blessed
"IE6 frame" to deal with this. From what I understand, the compatibility mode
in IE8 isn't good enough. People need to move onto the new browser and use a
modern rendering engine by default instead of retrofitting the old browser.

~~~
texel
Yes, it would certainly be nice if the problem was solved from both sides.

------
vaksel
about time, don't you think?

guess they finally realized, that they aren't going to be doing too well in
the future, if the only exposure to their browser will be at work on the IE6

"switch from firefox to IE? Are you CRAZY? I use that piece of crap at work
all the time, it's the crappiest software I've ever used and all sites look
like garbage in it. No Thank You!"

------
bish
Anti Explorer is a small piece of code you can place in your site's HTML which
stops Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE / Explorer) from rendering your page.
Along-side this, a notification alerts the user he / she is using MSIE and
prompts him / her to download Firefox instead.

We've all been there. We design our site with Internet Explorer in mind, only
to find we have to resort to numerous hacks and complicated code to get our
site looking like it should in MSIE. Numerous Web Citizens have written hacks
and workarounds for MSIE, only to be dismayed at all the extra effort they had
to put in to get their designs cross-compatible with MSIE.

<http://anti.eire-media.com/>

------
julio_the_squid
When I start IE6, About 1/3 of the time rather than open the homepage I have
set, it loads Microsoft's IE8 download page. This doesn't seem to be new.

Is IE6 really that prevalent still? I don't work on a particularly tech-
oriented site, and only about 3.5% of our visitors appear to use IE6.

------
RyanMcGreal
In fairness, Microsoft finally has a browser that's significantly better than
IE6.

~~~
ugh
We can all thank the Mozilla Foundation, Apple and Google for that!

------
chrischen
Does windows 7 have a nice auto update like in the mac that will prevent this
from happening in the future? We can't be expecting people to upgrade every 2
windows releases :).

~~~
samdk
Windows has had a good auto-update system since Vista. However, one of the
biggest issues with IE 6 is that its use is still mandated by a lot of
companies because they have old, unmaintained webapps that only run on IE 6.

~~~
chrischen
> Windows has had a good auto-update system since Vista.

I beg to differ. The vista one might have actually updated your software to
the new stuff though. But from what I remembered in XP, if you wanted the new
windows media player, IE, or live messenger, you have to download them from
their websites.

Also the only thing I remember from windows updates is the constant nagging
restart prompt that sometimes closed unsaved work. You cannot call that good.

~~~
samdk
Oh, Windows Update on XP was terrible. And Vista's was far from perfect. But
it _was_ integrated into the OS and it did, for the most part, do its job of
keeping software updated (however annoying it was about it). By 'good' I
simply meant well-integrated and effective. I've had complaints about almost
every auto-update system I've used.

------
nathanwdavis
Why not target both IE6 and IE7 users to upgrade?

~~~
ugh
Won't those who updated to IE7 also more readily update again? Getting people
to update IE7 should be the easy part. IE6 is the problem.

~~~
pmjordan
Except for those using IE7 because it was the default in Vista. IE6 is
definitely the bigger problem, however.

~~~
ugh
What was that strange word you used there? Vista? Never heard of it :)

