

Much Ado About IE6 - Nycto
http://blog.digg.com/?p=878

======
jballanc
While I appreciate that Digg actually took the time to do a survey of reasons
why people are still using IE6, I don't think the results are really that
surprising to most web developers.

However, just because users are not empowered to switch away from IE6, that
doesn't mean that an IE6 upgrade reminder page is useless. It's just the
"squeaky wheel" philosophy of getting things done. If enough users see enough
"Upgrade Your Browser!" pages, and if enough of them complain to management
often enough, then management might actually do something about it.

Let us not forget that Internet Explorer's market dominance was built on the
notion that, after some time, many pages didn't work in other browsers. The
only way to break that dominance will involve the same, but in reverse.

~~~
treyp
Actually, I'm a web developer and I've been looking for a larger site to do a
survey exactly like this for a long time.

And as far as changing my behavior developing sites, I'll actually word it a
bit differently now -- something like "please upgrade your browser, or if it's
out of your control, take a moment to email your manager or IT department to
ask them to upgrade your browser, as it is 8 years old and growing."

------
Hexstream
"Currently, IE6 usage accounts for 10% of Digg visitors and 5% of page views
on Digg. While this is down from 13% and 8% a year ago respectively, IE6 still
accounts for a fairly large portion of Digg usage."

This makes me sick. I seem to recall that when Firefox had about 5%
marketshare, lots of people were saying "Why go to the trouble of supporting
Firefox for only 5%?!". And then now when IE6 has 5%, they don't seem to have
the same reasoning.

(Yeah, just an impression).

~~~
modeless
Just look where the money is: they didn't list stats for ad clicks but I'm
willing to bet IE6 users click more than their share of ads, and Firefox users
less.

~~~
I_got_fifty
That's actually an quite interesting notion. I'd like to see digg show the ad
clicks for each browser.

------
snprbob86
Serve them this: <http://m.digg.com/>

------
dsil
"we’re likely to stop supporting IE6 for logged in activity like digging,
burying, and commenting. Users of IE6 would still be able to view pages - just
not logged in. This won’t happen tomorrow, but we’re thinking about doing it
soon."

~~~
ojbyrne
Since a significant portion of the users were forced to use IE6 at work, the
most likely response of IT managers to this action will be "Oh, so you'll be
forced to spend less of your time at work interacting with digg (and other non
work-related sites)? Sounds good."

------
awolf
To take it a step further digg should try to generate publicity around this
and get other web apps on board.

I'd love to see a "ditch IE6 day" where thereafter I can just pretend all web
browsers know how to render transparent pngs.

------
buugs
13% and 8% down to 10% and 5% if you stop supporting the browser now why
support it previously it seems as though the 3% drop was irrelevant.

The real issue should be who is using ie 6 is it people that are loyal diggers
who have no other option while at work, school, etc... or is it indeed people
who refuse to upgrade or unaware that other browsers exist. It seems the
former with the low percentage.

~~~
I_got_fifty
I'd hate to use a four letter acronym, so I wont.

The IE6 users is mostly people who use it on their work computers, as mention
in the article.

------
axl
Build a rendering engine in javascript. Redirect the IE6 users of the world to
it.

~~~
pilif
<http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/>

but it's terribly slow.

------
edw519
I have a client that just made the decision to upgrade all desktops to IE7.
They put together a project plan that lasts 6 months. That's what we're up
against.

If you want people at work to use your site you still have to consider IE6.

~~~
simonw
I'm genuinely intrigued: what kind of rough steps are there in a six month
plan to upgrade to IE7? Is it mostly testing existing internal applications
for compatibility?

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embeddedradical
if reddit, myspace, facebook, twitter, and other applications i don't use also
did this --- perhaps that damn thing would finally die

~~~
GeneralMaximus
IMO, Facebook and Twitter could really change things if they wanted to.

Heck, don't drop support for IE6. Just show a banner on the top of the page
which says something to the effect of "Hey! You're using outdated software.
Would you like to upgrade?". Millions of non-geeks use Facebook/Twitter
everyday. Even if 1% of them upgraded, it would make a hell of a difference.

------
volida
how many users is the 5%?

------
Ardit20
In my university, they still use IE6 everywhere. If a website asked me to
upgrade I can not because we can not install anything on the machines.
However, the machines do have firefox, so I tend to use that, but it does not
come spontaneously to many people to look for firefox, while ie is right there
on the desktop.

As for the article, I did find it insightful in as far as I did not know
before why people continue using ie6. I thought the idea to ask them upgrade
was quite a logical one. However, although it might work in forcing my
university to upgrade, I am not too sure as I suppose the IT department has a
lot on its plate and perhaps upgrading their browser is not as important as
say upgrading the online learning environment.

~~~
GeneralMaximus
Upgrading the browser is not too tedious a task. In fact, if your IT
department had left Windows Update turned on, they'd have at least IE7 by now.

Of course, they can't leave WinUpdate on because they did not legally purchase
Windows :p

~~~
fishercs
this is a great point made by someone that has never worked in IT..

Nevermind the fact that nearly all proprietary software on a system may or may
not function correctly with the release of a service pack or a new browser,
testing should always be done before hand which is why auto updates are turned
OFF.

on the IE6 front i completely agree, i have a redirect page setup with a link
to IE 7 for our company website.. IE7 isnt the newest and greatest thing by
any means but its a whole lot better than its predecessor.

