Internet Explorer 6

[Jeff]

I've noticed a lot of people on the forum are using Internet Explorer 6.

Can those who still use this browser please explain why they haven't upgraded to something newer?


Do people use it at work and are not able to upgrade due to IT department policies, are you using an old operating system that won't run later versions, do you not know how to upgrade, do you not consider it to be important, or something else?


IE6 has been around for 8 years now, and its non-standard behaviour means it won't work properly with a lot of sites. IE7 has been available since 2006, and IE8 is now available.
Better browsers such as Firefox have been available for a long time, and will work on systems that won't run IE7.

 

[highland fox]

I've noticed a lot of people on the forum are using Internet Explorer 6.

Can those who still use this browser please explain why they haven't upgraded to something newer?


Do people use it at work and are not able to upgrade due to IT department policies, are you using an old operating system that won't run later versions, do you not know how to upgrade, do you not consider it to be important, or something else?


IE6 has been around for 8 years now, and its non-standard behaviour means it won't work properly with a lot of sites. IE7 has been available since 2006, and IE8 is now available.
Better browsers such as Firefox have been available for a long time, and will work on systems that won't run IE7.

:icon_conf

 

[Jeff]

:icon_conf

You're using Internet Explorer 7, so this thread doesn't apply to you.

 

[homer]

'tis my work's system, so I have no choice

 

[Steven]

Firefox 3 and IE8. :icon_cool

 

[bocadillo]

I've noticed a lot of people on the forum are using Internet Explorer 6.

You think you've got problems. A 'tramway' forum to which I subscribe recently had a post listing the percentage of members using particular browsers. Last month IE (all versions) was for the first time being used by fewer than 50% of users, but the owner did wonder who it was that was still using IE4.

 

[Macky]

I may have mentioned this before, but I hate IE6 with a passion.

The trouble is, an awful lot of businesses still use Windows 2000, which means IE6 and its demonic ways will be causing problems for the foreseeable future.

 

[Jeff]

A 'tramway' forum to which I subscribe recently had a post listing the percentage of members using particular browsers.

I can do that...

MSIE 1438923 52.8 %
Msie 8.0 279301 10.2 %
Msie 7.0 837661 30.7 %
Msie 6.6 3 0 %
Msie 5.00 37 0 %
Msie 4.02 2 0 %
Msie 7.0.5346.5 1 0 %
Msie 6.5 1 0 %
Msie 6.1 2 0 %
Msie 5.17 1167 0 %
Msie 3.02 141 0 %
Msie 3.0 1 0 %
Msie 2.0 348 0 %
Msie 6.0.2800.1106 3 0 %
Msie 6.0 315753 11.5 %
Msie 5.05 1 0 %
Msie 5.5 2766 0.1 %
Msie 5.01 73 0 %
Msie 5.0 1488 0 %
Msie 4.01 166 0 %
Msie ? 8 0 %
FIREFOX 758300 27.8 %
Firefox 3.0.10 310788 11.4 %
Firefox 2.0.0.21 50 0 %
Firefox 3.5 3269 0.1 %
Firefox 3.0.11 349163 12.8 %
Firefox 3.0.9 351 0 %
Firefox 3.1 55 0 %
Firefox 3.0.8 5770 0.2 %
Firefox 3.0.7 7014 0.2 %
Firefox 3.0.6 1672 0 %
Firefox 3.0.5 1178 0 %
Firefox 3.0.4 3591 0.1 %
Firefox 3.0.3 347 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.22 24 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.4 49 0 %
Firefox 1.0.6 137 0 %
Firefox 1.0.3 1 0 %
Firefox 3.0.1 3574 0.1 %
Firefox 3.0 931 0 %
Firefox 3.0.0 2359 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.20 48345 1.7 %
Firefox 2.0.0.18 38 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.17 12956 0.4 %
Firefox 2.0.0.16 320 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.7 1 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.15 299 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.14 1001 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.13 311 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.12 127 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.11 587 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.10 42 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.9 112 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.8 53 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.6 63 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.5 66 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.3 108 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.2 42 0 %
Firefox 2.0.0.1 89 0 %
Firefox 2.0 220 0 %
Firefox 1.6 14 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.12 301 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.8 21 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.7 2601 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.6 9 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.5 6 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.4 8 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.3 2 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.2 3 0 %
Firefox 1.5.0.1 2 0 %
Firefox 1.5 70 0 %
Firefox 1.0.8 3 0 %
Firefox 1.0.7 61 0 %
Firefox 1.0.4 8 0 %
Firefox 1.0.2 6 0 %
Firefox 1.0 16 0 %
Firefox 0.9.6 1 0 %
Firefox 1.0.1 4 0 %
Firefox 0.9.2 8 0 %
Firefox 0.9.1 5 0 %
Firefox 0.8 42 0 %
Firefox 0.8.0 2 0 %
Firefox 0.5.6 4 0 %
NETSCAPE 12621 0.4 %
Netscape 8.1 3 0 %
Netscape 8.0 2 0 %
Netscape 4.79 227 0 %
Netscape 4.78 1 0 %
Netscape 7.4 1 0 %
Netscape 7.1 5 0 %
Netscape 7.0 1 0 %
Netscape 6.1 1 0 %
Netscape 5.0 10804 0.3 %
Netscape 4.76 118 0 %
Netscape 4.61 233 0 %
Netscape 4.08 1 0 %
Netscape 4.7 5 0 %
Netscape 4.5 1 0 %
Netscape 4.0 704 0 %
Netscape 3.01 5 0 %
Netscape 3.0 234 0 %
Netscape 1.6 1 0 %
Netscape 0.91 108 0 %
Netscape 0.6 158 0 %
Netscape ? 8 0 %
Others 513069 18.8 %
Safari 162127 5.9 %
Unknown ? 127408 4.6 %
Google Chrome 123231 4.5 %
Mozilla 62467 2.2 %
Opera 28709 1 %
Sony/Ericsson Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 4147 0.1 %
AppleSyndication (RSS Reader) 1052 0 %
Wget Yes 848 0 %
kia Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 464 0 %
GreatNews (RSS Reader) 378 0 %
RssReader (RSS Reader) 330 0 %
Samsung (PDA/Phone browser) 247 0 %
Motorola Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 229 0 %
LG (PDA/Phone browser) 229 0 %
Acrobat Webcapture Yes 228 0 %
LibWWW-perl 153 0 %
SIE (PDA/Phone browser) 139 0 %
UP.Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 99 0 %
Camino 82 0 %
Sony/Ericsson (PDA/Phone browser) 82 0 %
LibWWW 60 0 %
Konqueror 57 0 %
Sage (RSS Reader) 38 0 %
Epiphany 35 0 %
ANT Fresco 32 0 %
I-Mode phone (PDA/Phone browser) 24 0 %
Philips Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 21 0 %
Panasonic Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 20 0 %
I-Mode phone (PDA/Phone browser) 19 0 %
Alcatel Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 16 0 %
Phoenix 16 0 %
Ericsson Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 14 0 %
Curl Yes 12 0 %
K-Meleon 11 0 %
OmniWeb 7 0 %
Lynx 5 0 %
Microsoft Mobile Explorer (PDA/Phone browser) 5 0 %
Links 4 0 %
Apple iTunes (media player) 3 0 %
BonEcho (Firefox 2.0 development) 3 0 %
iCab 3 0 %
Gregarius (RSS Reader) 2 0 %
Galeon 2 0 %
Vienna (RSS Reader) 2 0 %
HTTP user-agent for POE (portable networking framework for Perl) 1 0 %
Wizz RSS News Reader (RSS Reader) 1 0 %
WAPalizer (PDA/Phone browser) 1 0 %
NetShow Player (media player) 1 0 %
Microsoft Data Access Component Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1 0 %
NetPositive 1 0 %
NetNewsWire (RSS Reader) 1 0 %
Microsoft Data Access Component Internet Publishing Provider Cache Manager 1 0 %
Liferea (RSS Reader) 1 0 %

 

[Jeff]

I may have mentioned this before, but I hate IE6 with a passion.

Me too.

The reason I asked the question is to see if I can stop supporting it on some of my websites.

If people have got no choice because of work they have my sympathy, but as Firefox works with Windows 2000 their IT people should install it.
If important sites became incompatible with IE6 they'd do something about it pretty quickly.

 

[Steven]

Me too.

The reason I asked the question is to see if I can stop supporting it on some of my websites.

If people have got no choice because of work they have my sympathy, but as Firefox works with Windows 2000 their IT people should install it.
If important sites became incompatible with IE6 they'd do something about it pretty quickly.

None more important than this one. :icon_wink

 

[Macky]

If people have got no choice because of work they have my sympathy, but as Firefox works with Windows 2000 their IT people should install it.

You can also get Firefox as a portable app, that requires no installation.

Very handy if you don't have admin rights to install anything.

 

[Matt_B]

The problem is two fold. One of our customers, a leading water provider ( ) have 3000 systems all running IE6, all of their internal web system are built with that in mind. To upgrade would not only be a huge rollout but would also potentially involve huge internal rewrites.

Similarly another of our customers has Win2000 machines (and some Win98) but are certified Microsoft partners so have to use their browsers for political reasons.

Hate IE6 with a passion though.

 

[Steven]

The problem is two fold. One of our customers, a leading water provider ( ) have 3000 systems all running IE6, all of their internal web system are built with that in mind. To upgrade would not only be a huge rollout but would also potentially involve huge internal rewrites.

Similarly another of our customers has Win2000 machines (and some Win98) but are certified Microsoft partners so have to use their browsers for political reasons.

Hate IE6 with a passion though.

Aren't there innate security risks from running that OS and that browser type?

 

[Matt_B]

Aren't there innate security risks from running that OS and that browser type?

Yep, it's still less of a risk in their eyes than upgrading.

 

[LS6_Fox]

When I access from work, then we have to use IE6, not allowed to use anything else.

 

[Joe_Fox]

I've noticed a lot of people on the forum are using Internet Explorer 6.

Can those who still use this browser please explain why they haven't upgraded to something newer?


Do people use it at work and are not able to upgrade due to IT department policies, are you using an old operating system that won't run later versions, do you not know how to upgrade, do you not consider it to be important, or something else?


IE6 has been around for 8 years now, and its non-standard behaviour means it won't work properly with a lot of sites. IE7 has been available since 2006, and IE8 is now available.
Better browsers such as Firefox have been available for a long time, and will work on systems that won't run IE7.

Webbo. We are still on IE6 but are moving to IE8 soon, prob August time. We didn't go to IE7 cos it's crap, but IE8 looks much more promising.

 

[Macky]

We are still on IE6... We didn't go to IE7 cos it's crap...

:icon_conf So, IE7 is crapper than IE6?
erm...eh???

 

[LS6_Fox]

:icon_conf So, IE7 is crapper than IE6?
erm...eh???

Joe logic that there Macky.

 

[Joe_Fox]

The effort to move to IE7 wasn't worth it - IE7 didn't offer much more than IE6 so what was the point? IE8 however seems to be what they intended for IE7 (but IE7 was just rushed out and had loads of bugs, etc).

It's not just a case of using IE6 one day and swapping to IE7 - dozens of separate web applications need to be tested against new versions of IE so any decision to switch to the next browser release is not to be taken lightly.

 

[Darth Vodka]

we have IE6 at work (am on it now)

i think they are waiting for the office 2007 upgrade to change it

not too fussed, although i'm pretty bored today and might look to change it