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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

#101

Post by makecheck »

I wonder how many organizations use separate test environments; because parallelism is really useful for this kind of migration.

In the case of IE6, it would mean setting up some machines with $NEXT_GEN_BROWSER and some side servers with copies of the antiquated "web" apps. Gradually, everything that's broken without IE6 is fixed by tinkering with the side copy that no one is really using. Sometimes, the company's been really stupid and doesn't even have source code, etc. so "tinkering" might really mean "try something new entirely", but at least they'd be showing interest in modernizing (however long it takes).

The simple fact is that all companies should have this kind of "beta flow", in which they can basically try whatever they want (time permitting). Today it's IE6, tomorrow it could be something entirely different; there will always something new that "might" vastly improve efficiency, and a company that can give these things an honest trial is way ahead. I cringe when I see change-averse IT groups, because deep down I know they're shooting themselves in the foot.

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

#102

Post by kyro »

vaksel wrote: post #68
pg wrote: post #4

This is the biggest example I've seen of the network of YC alumni organizing to do something. YC itself didn't organize this or even know about it. I've been looking forward to seeing what this type of network can do that a traditionally hierarchically structured organization can't.

I dunno, Google seems to have beaten them to the punch and no matter their culture, I'd still call them a traditionally hierarchically structured organization

What does beating anyone to the punch have anything to do with this? This isn't some race to hit a specific market first, and I doubt they're trying to go down in internet history as The Organization that Led the Revolution Against IE6. Regardless of who came out against IE6 first, this can only strengthen the effort, and lengthens the list of popular services against the browser, which will hopefully change things.

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

#103

Post by nbhat »

aichcon wrote: post #16
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?'

I agree and I face this problem. Generally I circumvent this by firebugs capabilities to edit the HTML dynamically, but it has to be done too frequently end up uninstalling IE8. and installing it again at a later point. IT department thinks that IE7 does not make the security cut .. I dont know the specifics of security cut.

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

#104

Post by ErrantX »

Once again this is fairly pointless.

The vast majority of machines running IE6 have requirements that see no advantage to an upgrade. Example: corporate machine where the internet is not used - in that case an IE upgrade is pointless, but the employee might still surf the web.

How many home users are still using IE6? I doubt all that many TBH.

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

#105

Post by trapper »

jodrellblank wrote: post #75
trapper wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are luckier than us - some of our customers machines are so locked down that they can't even change the date let alone install firefox. We even tried using portable apps on a usb stick, no luck there either! Arrgh.

Why would they need to change the date? It syncs with a domain controller and if you knock it more than 15 minutes or so out you'll break kerberos and your username and password will stop working, and then you'll tell me "you didn't do anything" and "it was working fine". :-/

Laptop + travel across timezones.

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

#106

Post by psawaya »

rantfoil wrote: post #82
vaksel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, Google seems to have beaten them to the punch and no matter their culture, I'd still call them a traditionally hierarchically structured organization

What punch did we get beaten to, exactly?

To be fair, there is pushuptheweb.com, though that's more a general purpose upgrade reminder for your site and not targeted specifically at IE6

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

#107

Post by Jem »

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 don't now, but have worked in 3 different locations where IE6 was forced on its users. All education.

They have different financial priorities than spending time on upgrading software that "just works".

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

#108

Post by robin_reala »

jodrellblank wrote: post #74
lurkinggrue wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about Virtual Box to run IE6?

How about the cost of a Windows license?

How about Ubuntu and IEs4linux? Nothing like a few more layers of abstraction.

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

#109

Post by robin_reala »

jodrellblank wrote: post #76
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've never heard from someone that actually works in one of these IT departments Hi! who are these unsympathetic robots who, while ironically working in an IT department, are so out of touch with technology The same people who get emails from vendors warning us off upgrading to IE7 or certain programs will break. The same people who have had such pain from flakey apps for all sorts of reasons that we just don't dare…

By choosing the easy path for yourself you’re choosing the hard path for web developers. Sooner rather than later this tension will become too much and you’ll find that websites simply stop supporting your browser of choice.

But, like someone already mentioned in this thread it’s not a binary choice. Install Firefox (or an equivalent up-to-date browser) for normal browsing and leave IE6 on the machines for legacy apps.

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

#110

Post by robin_reala »

hassy wrote: post #48
sachinag wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As does Britain's Ministry of Defence as well as many other departments in the British government. Moreover, they don't even have upgrade plans in place either.

Reference: http://www.kable.co.uk/government-internet-browsers-23jul09
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