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

Post by nostrademons » Tue, Aug 04, 2009, 9:32 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #39

aichcon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?'

Sometimes the question isn't even "do we spend time and money to update our applications", because sometimes the code for the applications is long gone, along with the company that wrote it, and all they have left is the compiled code running on some server in a back closet.

Post by soldarnal » Tue, Aug 04, 2009, 9:41 PM UTC

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...

Post by palish » Tue, Aug 04, 2009, 9:42 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #51

pavel_lishin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes the question isn't even "do we spend time and money to update our applications", because sometimes the code for the applications is long gone, along with the company that wrote it, and all they have left is the compiled code running on some server in a back closet.

This was the reasoning that led to Java's ascendancy in the enterprise and the 1996-2000 tech boom. Companies were stuck with Y2K-incompliant COBOL software that they no longer had the expertise (or sometimes even the source code) for, and they had a hard constraint of Jan 1, 2000 that they had to hit. So many of them threw away their existing software entirely and rewrote it all in Java. The resulting IT spending fu…

Post by Quiark » Tue, Aug 04, 2009, 10:00 PM UTC

drusenko wrote: post #25

aichcon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?'

Same reply here as below: "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."

Post by run4yourlives » Tue, Aug 04, 2009, 10:05 PM UTC

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".