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Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

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Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#11

Post by batista »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #2

By moving to IE9 he's discounting all corporate customers who haven't moved to Windows 7 yet. This leaves them with only one option if they want support on a long-term supported browser, which is the recently shipped Firefox Enterprise Support Release.

By moving to IE9 he's discounting all corporate customers who haven't moved to Windows 7 yet.

Better framed: he's discounting all the corporate customers who drag their feet technology wise, and will give him more headache than money.

Such corporate late adopters are not usually the ones to use something external, much less Basecamp, anyway.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#12

Post by batista »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #8
WildUtah wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>By moving to IE9 he's discounting all corporate customers who haven't moved to Windows 7 yet. Nonsense. Chrome and Firefox will both run on XP.

You'll notice the second sentence there, which talks about Firefox ESR as the only option if they want a long-term supported browser. Many large corporations will not switch to a browser which updates itself more often than they can easily test it against all of their internal apps.

Those corporations tend to be a pain to work, have lots of internal crap apps, and don't use external stuff like Basecamp anyway. Good riddance.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#13

Post by billpatrianakos »

AndrewDucker wrote: post #2

By moving to IE9 he's discounting all corporate customers who haven't moved to Windows 7 yet. This leaves them with only one option if they want support on a long-term supported browser, which is the recently shipped Firefox Enterprise Support Release.

It's totally necessary though. Developer's can't be supporting old browsers forever. And really, when we speak of "old browsers" we really just mean IE which still throws weird behaviors at you in the latest versions! When enough sites stop supporting these dinosaurs we not only give users a better experience on our sites but across the entire web.

Corporate customers can always use Chrome or Firefox on XP and if they can't then there's still Basecamp Classic for them. I think they're doing the right thing. It's a calculated risk and I think the odds are in their favor.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#14

Post by AndrewDucker »

adhipg wrote: post #10
AndrewDucker wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll notice the second sentence there, which talks about Firefox ESR as the only option if they want a long-term supported browser. Many large corporations will not switch to a browser which updates itself more often than they can easily test it against all of their internal apps.

Is the Google Chrome Frame for IE an alternative option for such users?

Sadly not, unless specifically allowed by the IT department. I certainly can't download EXEs past our firewall.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#15

Post by dsr_ »

batista wrote: post #12
AndrewDucker wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll notice the second sentence there, which talks about Firefox ESR as the only option if they want a long-term supported browser. Many large corporations will not switch to a browser which updates itself more often than they can easily test it against all of their internal apps.

Those corporations tend to be a pain to work, have lots of internal crap apps, and don't use external stuff like Basecamp anyway. Good riddance.

They include banks and other very-security-conscious folk... with money to spend on easily deployable apps that address their needs. Feel free not to go after them as customers, though.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#16

Post by untog »

batista wrote: post #12
AndrewDucker wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll notice the second sentence there, which talks about Firefox ESR as the only option if they want a long-term supported browser. Many large corporations will not switch to a browser which updates itself more often than they can easily test it against all of their internal apps.

Those corporations tend to be a pain to work, have lots of internal crap apps, and don't use external stuff like Basecamp anyway. Good riddance.

They also have a ton of money. You might not want any of it, but some do. Continuing to support IE7/8 for that reason makes sense.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#17

Post by untog »

billpatrianakos wrote: post #13
AndrewDucker wrote: post #2

By moving to IE9 he's discounting all corporate customers who haven't moved to Windows 7 yet. This leaves them with only one option if they want support on a long-term supported browser, which is the recently shipped Firefox Enterprise Support Release.

It's totally necessary though. Developer's can't be supporting old browsers forever. And really, when we speak of "old browsers" we really just mean IE which still throws weird behaviors at you in the latest versions! When enough sites stop supporting these dinosaurs we not only give users a better experience on our sites but across the entire web. Corporate customers can always use Chrome or Firefox on XP and if the…

It's totally necessary though. Developer's can't be supporting old browsers forever.

It's not really our choice, though. If you run an online shopping site and 40% of your customers use IE7, you should support IE7. Urge them to upgrade, sure, but if you want to actually make money you're going to have to bite the bullet and deal with old browsers.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#19

Post by dmethvin »

untog wrote: post #17
billpatrianakos wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's totally necessary though. Developer's can't be supporting old browsers forever. And really, when we speak of "old browsers" we really just mean IE which still throws weird behaviors at you in the latest versions! When enough sites stop supporting these dinosaurs we not only give users a better experience on our sites but across the entire web. Corporate customers can always use Chrome or Firefox on XP and if the…

It's totally necessary though. Developer's can't be supporting old browsers forever. It's not really our choice, though. If you run an online shopping site and 40% of your customers use IE7, you should support IE7. Urge them to upgrade, sure, but if you want to actually make money you're going to have to bite the bullet and deal with old browsers.

Yep, it really comes down to money. If you are running a consumer retail site that gets traffic from Fortune 500 employees buying stuff on their lunch hour, you will either support IE7 or lose business.

Sure IE7 has problems, but they are well known problems at this point. An experienced web designer should know how to deal with them to give IE7 users a degraded but functional experience.

Re: Developing for old browsers is (almost) a thing of the past

#20

Post by randlet »

hodder wrote: post #18

The multibillion dollar organization I work for just updated to IE8 from IE6 last week. We aren't allowed to use new browsers or chrome frame for "security" reasons. ha!

Lucky you! I work at a large hospital with (likely) 10k+ computers running XP and we're still stuck on IE6.

I'm not sure what the plan to migrate away from IE6 is but my guess is that it will be a massive pain for our IT department.

I have to imagine that IE6 will continue to limp along for a number of years to come, but hopefully large organizations will have learned a lesson about depending on a specific browser version (or a specific browser for that matter).

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