IE6 officially wore out its welcome

I am no authority on the matter but my experience with Internet Explorer has been dull from the get go. Even before I started web design, and back before horses were invented, when the only two browsers I knew about were IE and Netscape, I thought Netscape was way cooler! Needless to say when I started working with websites and eventually designing them, Internet Explorer grew less and less cool. And now it has officially wore out it’s welcome. So as of this day I am the proverbial mean ornery uncle and IE6 is the redheaded step child who gets the boot to the tune of “don’t let the door hit you on the butt on your way out”
Translation- after much thought and deliberation I have concluded that I will no longer offer support for IE6 and will try like the devil to persuade you against Internet Explorer. Yes I understand that 42%+/- of mine and my clients viewers are Internet Explorer users and 40%+/- overall Internet users choose the uncool as well. So I have my work cut out for me for sure and I realize that. But nowhere near the headache that Microsoft causes for themselves by still supporting their old browsers (and now adding a third OS to the mix. What are they thinking? )
According to w3schools.com browser statistics 15% of all Internet users are still using an eight year old version of IE while only 7% are using the current IE browser. That is pathetic if you ask me. You would think that they would include an update feature that would let their un-savvy users know that it’s time to upgrade. They have to know that their 15% are not loyalists only ignoramuses that just don’t know any better.
My hats off to Apple who seems to understand that people as a whole need help with understanding technology and that people are much more prone to purchasing a product that holds 1,000 songs compared to one that has 4gb of storage.
I haven’t used IE for years and have no plans to. My plan is to not reject those who are un-knowingly ignorant to the subject but to educate them to greener pastures where browsers magically update themselves and browser providers plan on improving their current work instead of throwing their hands in the air and starting over. So from now on my sites that are not solely flash will include a separate css file (thanks to css-tricks) that will educate IE users about the obscurities and weaknesses of IE and suggest safer more accurate browsers such as Firefox or Chrome. In this way I will feel that I have contributed to the solution while relieving myself from much un-needed and useless work of designing for an obsolete and troublesome browser.

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Filed under: Blabber
by: Yewtah
on: September 21st, 2009 Tags: Internet Explorer