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Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

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Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#31
post #29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome itself can be installed without admin rights, I remember using that on a University pc to view a flash video with the embedded plugin.

We deal with a large enterprise that uses old versions of IE and whenever our support team encounters one we just upgrade them to Chrome. Sadly we can't recommend any other browser since they all require admin access for some reason.

You can get Firefox and Opera in portable versions that don't require admin rights.

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Count yourself lucky. Amongst our enterprise-level customers, IE6 (yes, 6, you read that right) is still the majority of page hits.

It might be worth mentioning how IE 6 is still there. IE 6 is the only version that ever came with Windows XP and 2003 install images, which many many corps still use. And remember that the average lifetime of a Windows installation on a corporate desktop is actually pretty short, getting wiped and re-imaged frequently as people leave or machines are moved around or some Outlook error pops up and the IT guy re-images…

> FWIW, I intentionally keep IE 6 on my work machine (not a big corp, but we sell to them) for testing

Why not use Microsoft's ie VPC images? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=...

"In order to help web designers and web developers test their websites in older versions of Internet Explorer, we've provided the following VHD with Windows set up with the specified version of Internet Explorer. The images are patched with the latest security updates and are otherwise clean installs of the operating system with very few modifications."

Also works with VirtualBox on linux / mac: http://shapeshed.com/journal/testing_with_ie6_ie7_and_ie8_on...

You do not even need a Windows license:

"Note: You may be required to activate the OS as the product key has been deactivated. This is the expected behavior. The VHDs will not pass genuine validation. Immediately after you start the Windows 7 or Windows Vista images they will request to be activated. You can cancel the request and it will login to the desktop. You can activate up to two “rearms” (type slmgr –rearm at the command prompt) which will extend the trial for another 30 days each time OR simply shutdown the VPC image and discard the changes you’ve made from undo disks to reset the image back to its initial state. By doing either of these methods, you can technically have a base image which never expires although you will never be able to permanently save any changes on these images for longer than 90 days."

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#33
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We deal with a large enterprise that uses old versions of IE and whenever our support team encounters one we just upgrade them to Chrome. Sadly we can't recommend any other browser since they all require admin access for some reason.

You can get Firefox and Opera in portable versions that don't require admin rights.

This works if USB devices haven't been locked down by some kind of IT policy.

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#34
post #10

Sad to see they don't even mention Opera. I don't use it, but it should run google apps without problems. Also i know very big companies that still use IE6, sadly. For those people stuck without admin access and ancient browsers: Give Firefox Portable a try, it saved my day last week ;) Apart from that, go google go! I like this move and more websites should just do this..

I did notice they did not say they were dropping Opera support. I think it's reasonable for them to not spend a large amount of time fixing minor bugs for a browser with 2% market share.

Isn't this the point of web standards? Things should generally "just work" in Opera if they work in those other modern browsers.

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#35
post #9

This is damned good. If organisations continue transitioning, hopefully it'll up the pressure to keep updating browser versions and internal resources.

Yes, this strikes me as an important step toward the beginning of the end of having to design for archaic browsers. The ball just needs a nudge and it'll get rolling, the momentum of it just-being-the-way-it-ought-to-be behind it.

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get Firefox and Opera in portable versions that don't require admin rights.

This works if USB devices haven't been locked down by some kind of IT policy.

While portable apps are promoted for and usually installed on USB drives, they can also be installed on local disks as well, and they don't require admin privileges to do so (from my experience).

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#38
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This works if USB devices haven't been locked down by some kind of IT policy.

While portable apps are promoted for and usually installed on USB drives, they can also be installed on local disks as well, and they don't require admin privileges to do so (from my experience).

I was not aware of that. Thanks! I guess the portable aspect is not quite perfect for their description though?

Re: Google Apps dropping support for older browsers

#40

Why are big enterprises so resistant to change browsers?

Often they have a number of in-house intranet applications that rely on IE6 quirks. So there is a large cost associated with testing and upgrading their legacy applications.

This is definitely the case in a large number of the major UK banks.

As someone building software used by these places- it is frustrating to have to support IE6, but there is a lot of opportunity here, because a lot of developers/companies can't be bothered to make their products IE6 compatible.

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