Supporting IE Is Too Much Work

> IE9 won't let you inspect elements inside of an iframe dynamically generated with JavaScript.

What the hell are you doing with iframes? Sounds like a hack job.

Simple, if it's an open source project that's a tool for web development and the only barrier to making it cross-platform is rather insignificant, such as vendor prefixes on CSS3 features as one example or even just proper documentation, then I'm going to complain about it. As is my right as a member of this open society we call the internet.

The devs always have the right to ignore me and I'm sure many will. I'm fine with that.

If we're talking about a native app and the devs don't feel the need to port it to another platform, then that's cool. Which is exactly what I said before, but you skipped mentioning that. But if they say the thing works on Windows and there's difficulty in getting it done, then there's a problem. If I have to go searching through third-party websites to get their app working, then there's a problem. If the documentation for the platform that they claim to support is outdated, then there's a problem. I don't understand why it's so bad for me to point this out. It's not like I'm saying that BBEdit doesn't work on my Windows machine and therefore it's bad software.

I guess I only have the right to give criticism, constructive or otherwise, if I paid for the software? Then maybe all those complaints from the linux community aimed at Adobe for their lack of support of their platform should go away? Personally, I think their complaints are perfectly valid. It's funny, I've pointed out problems on other projects presented here and I was thanked for it. But I guess the response varies.

Getting SASS working on my Windows machine did not seem as easy as it appears to be on a Mac, simply because of the difference in environments. Even just using it seems easier for some reason from what I've read. But you know what? They gave instructions on how to get it done, they were relatively easy, and I was up and running in a decent amount of time. That was a good experience, I did not feel that the devs were limiting me based on my needs for a specific development platform. Therefore, to me anyway, that is a good example of a software project meant to help in web development.

But to be honest, I was not aware that I was complaining that loudly. Nor did I realize I was coming across as entitled as I thought I made it quite clear I do not think I am. Well, maybe I am about the complaining thing.

Did you email them and ask? Or submit an issue via Github? Did you ask for help on Stack Overflow? Once you found the fix for yourself did you submit a pull request? Did you contribute? Maybe write a guide for others so they won't have the flounder around in the same way you did? I never said you can't or in some "moral" sense shouldn't complain, nor do you have to contribute, but as cathartic as your post may have been, that is all it is, complaining for the sake of complaining (feel free to try and shame or bitch about open source projects all you want, but when that is the first and only thing you do, you're being lame).

An attitude of entitlement, and posting in random off topic forums where you are relying on the off chance someone from the project might stumble upon your complaint just makes you a silly person.

I have to be honest here, you've been so adamant on your position I had to go back and consider my original post to see if maybe I need to adjust my thinking on some things.

So, my first thought was about the concept of people being in their own bubble with the Mac community. It seems you had no comment whatsoever on that. I guess you might have been referring to that in your comment about linux and posix platforms. But if a demo is for a tool for web pages then it only makes sense that it be compatible with browsers capable of doing the same as webkit. It has nothing to do with OS.

Then I mention my negative experience with installing Phonegap on a Windows computer. You don't specifically mention anything about my experience in your response. I would have to say from my perspective the difficulties of getting Phonegap working on Windows is rather well-known, it's nothing new.

Then I mention SASS and hint at my positive experience. You completely ignore that.

Then I specifically state that I'm cool with someone developing an OSX only app. You completely ignore that.

I again mention the webkit prefix deal on Github. Since Mozilla and Opera more or less agree with me on that I feel no need to comment further.

Finally I speak of people complaining about developing for IE is hard and why I think they're wrong. I end stating that I'm in a similar situation with having to worry over Safari on OSX and I don't claim it's too hard to bother. Again, you completely ignore this.

Your response to all that is that when I run my own site job I can be opinionated and exclusionary. But I'm complaining about other people being exclusionary and you find fault with it from me. Then you seem to claim I want people to port their linux tools to windows for my benefit. I did no such thing and actually stated the opposite. As for complaining about difficulties of installing a free open source project, I still feel no issue with me doing that as long as the project claims to support my OS of choice.

My response to you is to clarify that if someone makes a tool that could easily be cross-platform and they choose not to then that's reason for complaint. I also state the devs have the right to ignore me. Again your ability to ignore my statements continue.

Again, I point out if devs don't want to port their native app to another platform then I am totally fine with it. Again you ignore.

Then the do I have to pay to complain question. Also the linux community complaining to Adobe which I agree with. Again you ignore.

I expand on my experience with SASS in a, I feel, highly positive manner. Again you ignore.

Then you respond with a complaint that I'm not contributing, which seems to make not much sense in relation to what I was talking about. Your attitude seems to suggest that I have some strong misgivings against the open source movement and that I am attributing some sort of indictment against the entire community. As I pointed out, I did not. You say I claim entitlement, I don't see that. You seem to be saying I was complaining about projects in the hopes a dev would see them even though they are in an off topic thread. My original post was on topic for the OP article since that's what I was commenting on. You were the one to somehow turn this into me whining about, apparently, the majority of the open source community.

I have to say, I completely disagree with almost every word you have written about my comments. I'll just say we'll have to agree to disagree.

I also apologize for the wall of text.

I generally don't bother supporting anything lower than IE8. If you want to use my app and are using an old version of IE just download chrome, it's free, otherwise don't use the app. I have used only Linux for about the last five years but i do test in IE using VirtualBox and the free VHD's provided by Microsoft(thanks guys).

I don't mind using the VM approach but the thing that annoys me is the massive size of the VHD files. My Ubuntu install is only about 3GB but each windows VM is around 16GB - 16GB!!! Considering I need a separate VM for every version of IE I want to test and I am using 128GB SSD's in my laptop and Desktop most of my disk space is taken up with having VM's to test IE.

That being said I think it's worth supporting newer versions of IE but I always display a message to users recommending they get a better browser, I think the more people we can get away from using IE the better because while IE10 might be ok now i just don't trust MS ability to update it in the future and i worry that in 10 years we'll all be bitching about IE10 the way we bitch about IE6 now because millions of users will still be running out of date browsers because of the poor update path for IE.