Should We Stop Supporting IE6?

Should we stop supporting IE6?

Internet Explorer 6 has long been the bane of web developers and web testers lives. Is it time to stop supporting IE6 users and pouring time and effort into this antiquated browser or should we, as decent web professionals, keep these users in the web ways they are accustomed to.

The most common problems that web designers and developers face with IE6 are CSS styling and layout bugs where the fixes required are often reached after several hours of trial and error. The IE6 PNG fix has gained prominence as being one of the more famous bug fixes around. More experienced developers will be able to implement these fixes more quickly but there can still be considerable effort needed to iron out these frustrating bugs.

When working on the development of a web site I find that there is always an aspect to the project that is related to IE6 testing and bug fixing, either the site in development is regularly checked as the build progresses or there is a big effort at the end to fully test the completed web site for IE6 oddities.

So is this additional effort warranted for one browser or is the IE6 issue hyped and not really that much of a problem at all, just something that we are all capable of dealing with just like any other browser?

Well, there are a lot of people who think that we should stop supporting IE6 altogether. A few of the more well known campaigns are Stop IE6 and Save The Developers who believe that users should boycott IE6 and move to newer and better web browsers.

This has caused a lot of debate amongst web developers for the best part of 18 months or longer. Whilst the numbers of IE6 users do appear to be finally coming down – July 2009 shows IE6 accounts for 14.4% of browser market share, down from 32% in January 2008, according to w3schools.com, which means there is still a significant number of them.

And that’s the problem, IE6 is, like it or not, still a major browser, even after all these years. It is in fact still the third most popular browser after Firefox 3 and IE7. Internet Explorer 6 was released in August 2001 and so has been around for exactly 8 years. In fact, IE6’s eighth anniversary was on August 27th, as Wikipedia has told me today.

So why are there so many people still using IE6 as their web browser?

Is the continued use of IE6 because that is the browser that was pre-installed when the computer was originally purchased and the user has never upgraded? Is it that simple?

It seems completely reasonable that there are thousands, if not millions of Internet users that purchased a computer for home use back when IE6 was practically the only web browser around (or more to the point was already installed on the computer they bought) and have continued to use it to surf the web completely oblivious to the need to upgrade. They simply have no motivation or desire or perhaps even the understanding required to upgrade their web browser. These users could easily still be running Word 97 and playing solitaire on a 15 inch CRT monitor with a resolution of 800 x 600 for all I know.

That may be unfair but in general terms we need to test most web sites for the lowest common denominator and, for the moment, that still includes IE6.

Despite all the campaigns trying to get users to upgrade their browsers or persuading developers to stop supporting IE6 when building web sites IE6 may only finally drop to a minor browser level after everybody has upgraded their computers rather than just their browsers.

So perhaps the campaigns should be about getting users to buy a new computer rather than using the old PC that they purchased 5 or 6 years ago.

But until the number of IE6 users drops to levels that are not as concerning do we continue to develop web sites and web applications with IE6 in mind, spending considerable resources in the process and huge amounts of frustration when it comes to testing and putting fixes in place when other browsers display the web sites we build pretty much as intended.

Or do we simply check for the browser version that they are using and, if it is IE6, display a message telling them they their browser is not supported, they cannot enter the web site and provide them with a link to our favourite alternative?

I have seen several web sites do something like this or sometimes they let the IE6 user have access to the web site with the proviso that there may be problems lying in wait.

The latter option is not a solution in my mind, akin to a doorman saying ’sorry mate, you’re not coming in’ when you try to walk into a shop. Perhaps the statistics for your own web site show IE6 users as being a lot less than 14.4% at present and your decision is to stop supporting them. Well, that of course is up to you but I think I will be continuing to test all web sites in IE6 for the foreseeable future, until such time as new computers are purchased or users finally see sense and upgrade to a more modern browser.

What do you think about continuing to support IE6? I would be interested to hear your views.

Photo courtesy of Flickr and z6p6tist6.