IE6 is dead?

[Pi1otguy]

After a long life (by software standards) IE6 is more or less been declared dead by several tech sites and news outlets. Unfortunately my work computer still has IE6 and I'm still in the process of verifying if any internal sites or custom apps I use will be broken by going to IE7 or IE8.

In the meantime it seems as if certain sites are no longer laid out properly. Did the webmasters deliberately break the layout WRT IE6 or did they just change the page without ensuring compatibility with ie6?

Was IE6 really that bad for webmasters as far as following web standards?

Will the admins of this site also "break" this site WRT ie6?

 

[jesse]

In the meantime it seems as if certain sites are no longer laid out properly. Did the webmasters deliberately break the layout WRT IE6 or did they just change the page without ensuring compatibility with ie6?

They most likely just quit going out of their way to make it render correctly in IE6. IE6 held a lot of sites back and often required a lot of nasty hacks to make something render right. Those hacks took time to implement and support.

Was IE6 really that bad for webmasters as far as following web standards?

There is a reason web designers cringe when they're faced with an IE6 issue on a modern site. Yes - it's pretty bad.

Will the this admins of this site also "break" this site WRT ie6?

Depends on the products we use. We won't hold the site back to maintain IE6 compatibility. But we won't go out of our way to break IE6.

 

[tonycondon]

still stuck with IE6 at work here too...

 

[Pi1otguy]

still stuck with IE6 at work here too...

IT's official policy on IE7 & IE8 is "You can install it, but if you call us for any issue we'll downgrade to IE6 even if a reimaging is required (3-6 hr process)"

Months ago a few of my co-workers had to downgrade back to IE6 because it broke an internal site. Then they upgraded that site and now IE6 is slow as tree sap but any and every other browser (IE7, FF) works perfectly. We're just scared we might break other internal sites & custom apps we occasionally use.

 

[RyanShort1]

Tell your boss that Mozilla Firefox doesn't cost anything to download...

Ryan

 

[Pi1otguy]

Tell your boss that Mozilla Firefox doesn't cost anything to download...

Ryan

... and ask for internal sites and apps to be designed to current industry standards? You must be crazy.

FF was funny though. A bunch of internal sites and atleast 2 apps broke while others told me to use IE6. Didn't have the heart to play with the user-agent at work.

That said, I'm not too mad at the upper levels of IT. There's a crap-ton of apps to test & update if we officially move to IE7 and an updated version of java.

 

[wsuffa]

Work finally moved to IE7 after much time. Apparently a number of the SAP applications and internal websites required rework. IE8 is still verboten.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

still stuck with IE6 at work here too...

Same here...

 

[mikea]

Months ago a few of my co-workers had to downgrade back to IE6 because it broke an internal site. ...

Let the users run a current standard browser and upgrade the web server admins to some that have a clue.

 

[jesse]

Work finally moved to IE7 after much time. Apparently a number of the SAP applications and internal websites required rework. IE8 is still verboten.

Internal websites are always the biggest hacks ever. Really terribly written but it doesn't matter "because only our employees will see it". But man, that really ****s you over come newer browsers.

There's really no reason one can't write a web app to last through many generations of browsers. It just requires that extra 10% of effort. I'm guilty of the same sometimes..

 

[weilke]

The other day I pulled up a site on the work computer using IE6. It didn't work and a banner appeared accross the page 'dude, you are using IE6, do you EVER update ?'

I thought that was unneccessarily cruel.

 

[RyanShort1]

... and ask for internal sites and apps to be designed to current industry standards? You must be crazy.

FF was funny though. A bunch of internal sites and atleast 2 apps broke while others told me to use IE6. Didn't have the heart to play with the user-agent at work.

That said, I'm not too mad at the upper levels of IT. There's a crap-ton of apps to test & update if we officially move to IE7 and an updated version of java.

There's no really good reason why you can't have your IE6 dinosaur running your internal applications, and Firefox for everything else - like looking up other businesses, keeping an eye on the competition, looking for cheaper components, etc... or sneaking a peak into the aviation world here... Of course some of us (like me) can log in in between students and there's no need for secrecy or anything about it. I wish I was too busy to log in at times.

Ryan

 

[Henning]

FF is a pain, I have not found it to be all that great. I'll probably go back to IE8 as I have too many problems with Facebook and inline PDFs. There is only one browser I have found that supports everything and that is IE.

 

[wsuffa]

There's no really good reason why you can't have your IE6 dinosaur running your internal applications, and Firefox for everything else - like looking up other businesses, keeping an eye on the competition, looking for cheaper components, etc... or sneaking a peak into the aviation world here... Of course some of us (like me) can log in in between students and there's no need for secrecy or anything about it. I wish I was too busy to log in at times.

Ryan

Great if you can do it. Our company bans installation of any non-company-approved software, including GPL and freeware such as Firefox. They sniff it out on computers (along with sniffing emails). Got a note recently from corporate security complaining about an employee that works for me who sent a document labeled "internal company only" to a law firm working on our behalf.

 

[ScottM]

Internal websites are always the biggest hacks ever. Really terribly written but it doesn't matter "because only our employees will see it". But man, that really ****s you over come newer browsers.

There's really no reason one can't write a web app to last through many generations of browsers. It just requires that extra 10% of effort. I'm guilty of the same sometimes..

My company is an IE6 company and only starting to move. The only time need IE6 is when I access a couple of the internal site like you mentioned. It is really annoying when that happens because it is for something really dumb. Like an internal training class I took last week. I used Mozilla for the whole class but the quiz only works on IE6. To get the credit I had to start all over again on IE6.

 

[ScottM]

FF is a pain, I have not found it to be all that great. I'll probably go back to IE8 as I have too many problems with Facebook and inline PDFs. There is only one browser I have found that supports everything and that is IE.

Interesting. I have never had a problem with Mozilla realted to Facebook.

 

[rpadula]

Reminds me of this classic pie chart on website design time:

 

[mikea]

FF is a pain, I have not found it to be all that great. I'll probably go back to IE8 as I have too many problems with Facebook and inline PDFs. There is only one browser I have found that supports everything and that is IE.

"Supports everything," meaning it can also run the proprietary, Windows only crap that Microsoft's tools and servers drop like bunny turds, while the other browsers are designed to standards.

I use Macs for everything personal and haven't lately found any site that won't work with Safari, Firefox, or Opera. When I get to a site that is confused I switch to one of the others - only if I have a motivation to actually stick with the site - otherwise I take my clicks and business elsewhere.

 

[Henning]

"Supports everything," meaning it can also run the proprietary, Windows only crap that Microsoft's tools and servers drop like bunny turds, while the other browsers are designed to standards.

I use Macs for everything personal and haven't lately found any site that won't work with Safari, Firefox, or Opera. When I get to a site that is confused I switch to one of the others - only if I have a motivation to actually stick with the site - otherwise I take my clicks and business elsewhere.

Only problem is I have some 3D CAD hull design software that doesn't work on a Mac. I even offered to buy one if they could make it work properly, they couldn't. Also with my Nav software I carry that doesn't work properly on a Mac. If I was a geek and had time, I might seek out another platform and make it work, but I'm not, like or not, I'm stuck with a Microsoft driven product, and I'm not going to pay Mac prices to run windows to no advantage. I've seen plenty of Macs around the boats over the years and they fare no better than any other computer that is half its price for the features. Unless you buy a Panasonic Toughbook (which is always hopelessly behind in processor technology) at a premium price, you get 2 years out of any laptop or computer that comes on a boat regardless what is (except for the a fore mentioned Toughbook, which unless you are running a permanent low grade piece of software like process monitoring and control, will be obsolete in 2 years with regards to running the modern software.)

I just want stuff to work, that's it. Linux can not make everything I use work, not unless I want to spend hundreds of hours learning programming and dicking around to make things work. Sorry can't be bothered. Apple cannot make everything I use work unless I make it a Windows computer, and they don't show me a hardware advantage. They don't even lacquer or otherwise minimally seal and protect their boards or use higher quality components. The offer me no benefit in a laptop, just a piece of fruit I can't eat. I am not an Apple-phobe either. I own an iPhone because it is still the superior phone on the market (though I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal for making it a useful product for me). It does most everything I want except support UMA, but my Blackberry does that, and I need two phones anyway and as a straight up communication device, the Blackberry is the better piece of equipment.

For my laptops, I go with whomever provides me the best value for my money, and that is just not nor has ever been an Apple product, and I shop them every time I need a new computer. Mac is like HD-DVD and Beta before it, it's an "also ran" product.

 

[RyanShort1]

Firefox went through some issues when they went to 3.0, but they got 'em resolved and I have had zero issues with any websites since. Also, add-ons like anti-ad stuff and the ability to download snippets of websites, or flash videos like that Gaston's wheelbarrowing incident so I can show them to students when I'm offline and don't have internet access is a good thing.

Ryan