#comments

I was reading this post yesterday that got my hackles up. Hackles? Hackle? Whatever. It was a post entitled “In defense of IE6” from the ironically named forabeautifulweb.com. As any web developer will tell you – IE6 is a significant barrier to the creation of a beautiful web – not because you can’t get stuff to look good in IE6, but because of all the horrendous hacks required to do so – even eschewing pixel identical cross browser compatibility. Hours on end spent working around IE6’s problems.

Anyway, there was so much wrong with that post – almost every single line was filled with something wrong… It’s got to be linkbait, but it worked on me. Let me just dive in. He starts out with some talk about his 11 year old car, this whole thing is somehow a car analogy. And then he’s onto his points.

Some people are not as fortunate as I am.

Ok, that’s true. Now from here on out, I’m going to be commenting on how I interpret his analogy. Which could be wrong, but it’s how I’m reading it.

They can’t afford to buy a new car (especially these days), no matter how much they want to.

Here the car is the browser, see? Obviously, he’s not talking about price since alternative browsers are generally free – so let’s see what he means.

Some people use a company vehicle, so upgrading their runaround isn’t something that they can control.

Some corporations won’t let their users upgrade. This isn’t a defense of IE. This is a shifting of the blame as to who is responsible for the continuing presence of IE in the world.

That I’m not in a hurry to exchange my wheels doesn’t matter that much, unless of course you make or sell cars. Then you really want me to upgrade.

Wrong. It isn’t just Firefox that wants you to upgrade. It is web developers and designers everywhere – and by extension the entire web. The entire web suffers because every major site still develops to support IE6 – this increases the development time and cost of every web effort.

A car showroom could offer me incentives of course, but if I’m not a qualified buyer, no no-money down, zero interest finance plan is going to change that.

Um. Ok, I think this means, some people simply can’t upgrade for external reasons. I simply don’t believe that 10-30% of all IE users (who are themselves 60%ish of all web users) are using proprietary web apps that break horrendously under IE7.

The fact that finance is cheap or free, new features and better comfort or the smell of a new motor aren’t going to convince me either. I’ll buy when I’m damn well ready.

I read this to contradict the previous sentence – here the implication is that these users simply don’t want to upgrade because they aren’t emotionally prepared. This is no defense of IE6. This same argument could be said, then, for using the netscape 1.0 browser. Which would be even more valid because I’d be an unqualified buyer running that on my Mac Plus – the option to upgrade wouldn’t even be possible. So the web should be forced to support netscape 1.0 as well, by the same “defense”.

Imagine how I’d feel if tomorrow I rolled up to fill up at my local garage, to find that the only petrol I could buy was for more modern bangers, or that the gas I could buy would noticeably deteriorate my car’s performance.

Why yes. Time does march on. If you were still driving your Model T – imagine what would happen? Should gas stations and indeed the entire refinery/distribution infrastructure be forced to give you whatever kinda crazy leaded fuel the Model T wants just because you feel like you’re not ready to get a modern car?

I’m not just talking about a few notches on the speedo, I’m talking about making my motor plod along at five miles per hour. How happy would I be? Not very. How pissed would I be if the designers of modern cars had not considered my needs and offered me the ability to carry on driving, albeit at a slightly reduced speed?

Same as above. How long does the entire world have to cater to your needs simply because you refuse to upgrade? I mean, this isn’t even a defense of IE6. It is whining.

It could be worse. If I’d missed the photocopied sign, Selotaped to the pump, the one warning me that my car was too old for high-octane, low lead, hydrogen infused wonder fuel, when ten miles down the road with smoke billowing and big-end rattling, I’m going to think that either it’s my fault or that my car is broken.

I don’t even know what this paragraph is supposed to mean or accomplish. I guess something about websites dropping support for it. Which I heartily wish the world would do, which would then force IE6 users to get a free upgrade to a better experience.

I know that my old Honda will never perform as well or be as comfortable as a new car, that the experience of driving it is not up to modern standards.

I’m glad you know this.

I know that one day I will be forced to put my hand deep into my pocket.

No you will not be forced to put your hand deep into your pocket. You will be required to spend 5 minutes downloading and installing a piece of free software.

But I should be free to make that choice on my terms, not have it dictated by others.

If you are free to not upgrade after 10 years of using old software, then developers should be free to design to modern specifications and not have restrictions dictated by your refusal to upgrade.

It is a support issue. But it’s worse, it’s not even like saying Microsoft has to continue supporting whatever OS you use for as long as you feel like using it. (which it won’t, companies end support for old software all the freaking time, it’s how business works). But it’s actually millions of developers and designers all over the world being forced to support your old busted software that has nothing to do with them – they didn’t make it – they simply have to deal with it.

IE6 is a blight on the world, increasing development cost and time for every web project. The more complex the design, the more complex it is to deal with making it work with IE6.

As far as I can tell the defense that this post says is simply that if he wants to use IE6, well then that’s everybody’s tough nuts but they should be forced to support him for as long as he damn well wants to keep using it. There’s probably exactly one defense for IE6 – if your corporation has developed proprietary web software that only works with IE6. But I strongly doubt that this accounts for 10-20% of the web viewing world. I tried to check some google analytics, but couldn’t infer anything from those domains.

Grrr. ARrrgh. Stop using IE6.