On the joys of auto upgrading
I was perusing Google Analytics this weekend, as I sometimes do and wandered into a little used (by me) corner - the browser capabilities. And something struck me as I gazed upon those numbers. How concentrated the version numbers were for Firefox and Safari and how divided they were with IE.
For Firefox, it seemed about 90% of the traffic was split between the latest minor point revisions (2.0.0.11 and 2.0.0.12). In Safari, about 85% was in Safari 3. But for IE it was about a 45/55 split between IE6 and IE7. This is incredibly annoying because IE is the toughest browser to code for and 6 is not the same as 7 and with IE having the lion’s share of the browser market you still have to code for both versions.
I’m guessing this occurs because FF and Safari both upgrade themselves easily and automatically. When a new version is ready both browsers (or the OS in Safari’s case) notice it and pop up a dialogue asking if you want to upgrade. If you do, you click yes, it downloads, you restart and pow new version. Easy as pie, unless one were in a big rush I’d be surprised that any significant portion of people say no on an ongoing basis.
Now I’m not a big windows user so maybe I’m wrong about this, but my laptop is still running IE6 and no update has presented itself to me. I know Microsoft does some updating, they even sometimes update without asking you if you want the update, so I guess they took Internet Explorer out of that equation. Which is probably sad for the internet - since we’ll probably never be rid of coding for IE6 and IE7 even as IE8 starts to make it’s way out of the gate.
For reference Safari 3 hit the scenes in October 2007 while both FF2 and IE7 were released in October 2006. I suspect that the bulk of IE6 falls out of use by attrition rather than upgrades as old computers are replaced with new ones featuring IE7. This process will continue for IE8.
I see more and more apps going the auto-upgrade route. It makes sense to me - making sure people have the most recent version is good for the app and good for the developer since it helps them in their support costs. Bugs will get fixed and pushed out to people who haven’t yet had the chance to find those bugs. And they don’t have to keep older versions around to figure out other problems. Sadly, the IE problem affects not just microsoft but the entire HTML loving internet. Sigh.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Here here my friend!
Shouldn’t it just be a given in this day and age of technology that apps such as browsers, being a necessity as they are anymore, should do this without our intervention?
Leave it to Microstinks to be dragging behind. And coding for their multiple standards-ignorant browsers…ugh, my head hurts already.
BTW, what OS do you use? I’m trapped in the XP world here at work, but have fairly recently started to use OS X at home. What a joy. :)
Dom
February 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
IE is also the hardest browser to design for, as far as things like Flash content and thing displaying they way they were designed to display. The only reason I even have IE is because other people have it and I have to test everything I do on it for that annoying reason. Microsoft’s auto upgrading is not the worst. That is to say I have seen worse. Particularly Electronic Arts Download Manager. What a sad pile of confused code THAT is. Here is my last Battlefield 2142 patch time line last I updated:
DM (download manager) can’t connect to my cable modem I have been connected to for 3 years > DM can’t connect to it’s host > DM needs and update (thats right the download manager needed to download an update for itself. > It could not. > I download update and install. > DM downloads patch to 99% then stalls out. > I flip out and download the patch manually.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Welcome to the wonderful world of OSX, Dom. :) I switched to OSX a few years ago after my linux desktop gave up the ghost suddenly and I had an OSX desktop that was good enough to not make me put together a new linux box. Since then OSX has gotten significantly better… significantly. And while there have been periods in my life where I had to use XP at work and it wasn’t necessarily a terrible experience, I’m much happier on my iMac. Much.
Wait, Flash has to be coded specially to work with IE? I figured that the Adobe implementation would be the same cross platform? That’s sad… really sad. As for the EA download manager… maybe that was EVE screwing with you so you don’t divide your gaming loyalties! Be true to your game, Poyla!! :)
February 25th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
No, Flash itself runs the same but hardly anyone uses straight Flash anymore. It is always interacting somehow with something. That is where IE is a pain in the ass. It is common to see on the Flash Forums: “But for IE you have to do this……”
Don’t worry about Eve, Battlefield 2142 is just a game.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am
“Don’t worry about Eve, Battlefield 2142 is just a game.”
Awesome.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
[...] makes a difference to web developers since it allows the installed userbase to quickly hit 80-90% saturation with the new version. It remains to be seen if IE6 and IE7 remain on the radar, removed from the browser rosters only by [...]
May 14th, 2008 at 10:39 am
[...] into Firefox and will ask its user base if they want to opt into this anonymous program. Given the auto-upgrading joy of Firefox it is reasonable to believe that a very significant portion of Firefox users will get this version [...]
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
[...] I mean the App Store is seriously great. Not only does it provide you all that goodness, but it manages updates for you. It alerts you when there’s updates for any of your apps and pow, you click update all and a few minutes later you are at the latest and greatest. Sure, on the one hand, they need this because the apps coming out now are a touch crashy, but going forward as the platform matures, that should happen less and less and now the lifespan of these games is expanded since they can get better over time. And of course, I am very, very pro-auto upgrades. [...]