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YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

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Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#11

Post by there »

j2d2 wrote: post #8
there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

These unsympathetic robots are all the people that are using Windows 2000. I've seen people in firms that refuse to update their version of windows. They all seem to hate this and don't expect much of a browsing experience from these machines anyway...

so is the refusal coming from the IT person or the end-user?

perhaps instead of all these silly campaigns to try to force users to upgrade, they should make a simple questionnaire that asks the user why they are still using ie6, and then publish the results. i have a feeling the leading reason will not be "because some jerk in IT won't let me".

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#12

Post by jmcannon »

there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

IE6 is still very prevalent in the American school system (don't know about elsewhere). We used to sell a web product to schools and you wouldn't believe the number of districts using IE6 for "compatibility" with their network software or because they don't consider upgrading a priority.

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#13

Post by johns »

there wrote: post #11
j2d2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These unsympathetic robots are all the people that are using Windows 2000. I've seen people in firms that refuse to update their version of windows. They all seem to hate this and don't expect much of a browsing experience from these machines anyway...

so is the refusal coming from the IT person or the end-user? perhaps instead of all these silly campaigns to try to force users to upgrade, they should make a simple questionnaire that asks the user why they are still using ie6, and then publish the results. i have a feeling the leading reason will not be "because some jerk in IT won't let me".

See the digg survey link below (or here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=742057)

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#14

Post by ironkeith »

there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

I know from extremely unpleasant experience that many large Canadian government organizations are still using IE6+XP. Further, I know of at least one large health region still on IE6+XP.

Change takes a while in these monolithic bureaucracies; especially when they have to ensure that any upgrades to software have no negative effects to any other software installed on the system (a lot of which can be equal parts shoddy and proprietary).

As an aside, I've been working with a large government client for 2.5 years now, and I still haven't been able to get their IT dept. to add Flash to their image to support the streaming video site they paid my company to build (hooray for Windows Media Player).

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#15

Post by drusenko »

ujeezy wrote: post #2

I hate IE6 as much as the next guy, but not everyone has the option to switch: http://blog.digg.com/?p=878

From my comment on VB: "That's exactly the idea. Even if a bunch of the remaining IE 6 users are corporate, hopefully a few of them will become aware of the fact that their browser is almost 9 years old and start putting pressure on IT to upgrade."

The more prompts that are posted across the web, the more pressure the IT department will be getting to get their ass in gear and upgrade their decade old computer systems.

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#16

Post by aichcon »

there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

The problem is internal legacy applications that only work in IE6. If they upgrade browsers the apps break, so in order to support these apps they keep IE 6. The question for them is 'do we spend time and money to update all of our applications to upgrade a browser, or just leave things the way they are for now?'

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#17

Post by sachinag »

alaskamiller wrote: post #7
there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

Not even the US military subject itself to the stupidity that is IE6.

The U.S. State Department, however, does.

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#18

Post by clistctrl »

there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

They're people who work in firms that have intranet applications that were written specifically for IE6. Its cheaper to keep the browser than update some very badly written software.

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#19

Post by drusenko »

there wrote: post #11
j2d2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These unsympathetic robots are all the people that are using Windows 2000. I've seen people in firms that refuse to update their version of windows. They all seem to hate this and don't expect much of a browsing experience from these machines anyway...

so is the refusal coming from the IT person or the end-user? perhaps instead of all these silly campaigns to try to force users to upgrade, they should make a simple questionnaire that asks the user why they are still using ie6, and then publish the results. i have a feeling the leading reason will not be "because some jerk in IT won't let me".

Our perspective is that the more people that are prompted about their outdated browsing experience, the more pressure the IT department will be getting to get their ass in gear and upgrade their decade old computer systems. You can bet that if the volume of complaints triples, it will start to become a major priority -- especially if the complaints are coming from the top.

Re: YC startups unite to drive nail into the coffin of Internet Explorer 6

#20

Post by drusenko »

clistctrl wrote: post #18
there wrote: post #6

from the comments: You do realize that a large portion of people that are using IE6 are at work where they have NO control over the browser... i hear this every time the ie6 argument comes up, and yet, i've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments that can vouch for this. who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with t…

They're people who work in firms that have intranet applications that were written specifically for IE6. Its cheaper to keep the browser than update some very badly written software.

Sorry, that's not an excuse. IE 8 comes with a "compatibility mode" feature where any site can choose to use the IE 6 rendering engine by setting headers or meta tags appropriately.
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