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Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

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Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#31

Post by gldalmaso »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #23

I'm not a fan, and I don't understand the gushing. As developers, I suppose folks are glad to reduce their support matrix? But as users, creators of highly customized workstations and rabid fans of particular development environments, doesn't it bother anybody but me, that the browser choice has been hijacked? Sure, its just stupid Windows users, they don't care. Is that it? Every IE UI is different, and they seem to…

>> As developers, I suppose folks are glad to reduce their support matrix?

Not just the number of elements that we have to support, but the sheer amount of time spent in trying to emulate and workaround severe limitations of previous versions, which easily added up to a significant portion of development time.

>> that the browser choice has been hijacked?

To me the browser choice should be between brands not builds.

When you choose to keep an out-of-date version around, you are actively halting the innovation pace for the web.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#32

Post by gldalmaso »

hello_moto wrote: post #29
necolas wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Furthermore, apparently "future versions of IE will provide an option in the product for consumers to opt out of automatic upgrading". Source: http://windowsteamblog.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2011/12/15/ie-to-...

If Redmond insist to have this option, please make it super hard for users to do it :D

I don't think that it will be a big issue since the major reason for end users to still have IE6 around is inertia.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#33

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

wildmXranat wrote: post #20
melling wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IE8 is the max for XP so until XP goes away it will be the new IE6, which is at 1% in the US. So, yes IE8 will have another decade.

Is IE8 really that bad with regards to standards ? That's an honest question.

With regards to the HTML5 and CSS3 level standards that Firefox, Chrome and IE10 are going to be supporting by the end of 2012?

Yes.

Compared to these, the IE8 JavaScript engine is quite slow too.

it's worth looking a few years ahead if IE8 will have another decade of popularity, which isn't impossible. Even without that longevity, the hindrance of the installed base of IE7 and 8 will grow over the next couple of years.

We know what IE10 will have, and roughly when, since it's part of the win8 plans.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#34

Post by dazbradbury »

Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but this has just made my christmas and new year. If this has a genuine impact, and means people are running IE8 in the worst case, then I will be a very a happy dev.

Patiently waits to see browser usage trends once this rolls out...

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#35

Post by tcskeptic »

gldalmaso wrote: post #28
hendrik-xdest wrote: post #5

And here I thought that all non-updated IE versions were installed in environments where Sysadmins blocked the updates (and will in the future). It would be interesting to see a number of how many installations this change could really target. Like, how many IE 6 to 8 are actually in the wild. Can't be that much, imho.

>> Sysadmins blocked the updates There's something about this that really bothers me, maybe someone can better clarify. Why are admins enforcing a policy that leaves the company target to just about every possible security hole that has been fixed in the past 20 years? Is there a valid reason for this that I'm unaware of?

Define valid. The reason in the giant organization that I work in is broken internal applications. The number of internally deployed web apps that were targetted for IE6 and nothing else is truly astonishing. And the speed with which they get updated is astonishing as well. We finally deployed IE8 this year after almost 2 years of remediation effort. Which just kills me. (And of course because of thinking about security harkens back to the 1960s, we are a full year into exploring the deployment of Chrome or Firefox as a supplemental browser, but at present it is too risky)

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#36

Post by ma2rten »

Finally! I have been waiting for this news for a very long time. I wish Microsoft would also push something like Chrome Tab to those users who opt out of the update, so a website can set some special http header/meta tag and then the website gets rendered with lasted version of the rendering engine.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#37

Post by michael_dorfman »

gldalmaso wrote: post #32
hello_moto wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Redmond insist to have this option, please make it super hard for users to do it :D

I don't think that it will be a big issue since the major reason for end users to still have IE6 around is inertia.

The major reason for end users to still have IE6 around is that they use proprietary applications which were written with IE6 in mind, and they see no good reason to spend money to upgrade these applications (if the vendor is even still interested in doing so) if it still works.

So, as long as there is a way to opt out, I imagine there are a lot of corporate folks who will do so.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#38

Post by dspillett »

melling wrote: post #13
TheCoreh wrote: post #9

This is great news: It means IE8 won't be the next IE6. Of course there are a lot of users still restricted to Windows XP, but their market share is dropping fairly quickly. Of course there will always be large corporate environments where updates are much slower, but I would say these are under 10%, perhaps?

IE8 is the max for XP so until XP goes away it will be the new IE6, which is at 1% in the US. So, yes IE8 will have another decade.

Not a decade for XP and IE6, but certainly more than two years. Close to a decade for IE8 potentially though.

XPsp3 drops off extended support in April 2014 (see http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?ln=en-gb&c2=1173 for detail) at which point it will get no new security updates unless you are a company that can afford to pay for them to be done (and if you did need to try that, it would no doubt be very expensive).

It is highly unlikely that the large companies (who are the main bodies holding on to XP and IE6) will allow themselves to still be using XP or IE6 beyond that point.

Unfortunately IE8 will work on Vista and 7, so I can see some corporates upgrading to IE8 and no further for now. The lifecycle lookup chart at MS (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex) doesn't list dates for IE7 or IE8. Assuming that IE8's support window is tied to Windows 7 the same way IE6 and XPsp3 were tied for support purposes (as W7 was delivered with IE8 installed), they'll be able to use IE8 under Windows 7 until 2020 (http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=14482) if they are stupid enough to try.

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