Phasing Out Internet Explorer 6

There has been recent discussion about the dwindling market share of IE6 from its peak around 2002-2003 of 95 percent, to around 25-35 percent this year. The current IE6 market share percentage may seem relatively high, but the amount of support that vendors, Web frameworks and developers are giving this last-generation Web browser this year may signal an even sharper drop in its usage. This change could not come soon enough.

What This Means for IE6 Users
For current IE6 users, making the decision to upgrade to a newer Web browser may not always be an easy one. Policy regarding company intranets requiring IE6 and the like make it difficult for some to simply upgrade whenever they wish. For those that can, the benefits of upgrading to a modern browser today such as IE7, Firefox or Safari include enhanced Web interfaces and a much richer Web experience, not to mention improved security and functionality in the form of add-ons.

I believe during the remainder of the year many Web sites viewed in IE6, whether noticeable or not, will continue to demonstrate the principles of progressive enhancement at work. The Web sites that IE6 users commonly visit may "work" for the most part but much of the performance and interface enhancements will be lacking, found only in modern browsers that have been formed with the help of the Web Standards Project such as the ones mentioned above.

What This Means for Web Developers
The extra time spent supporting IE6 includes finding ways around it's missing support of PNG alpha channel, box model and XMLHttpRequest (XHR). These are some of the main reasons Web developers hope IE6 quickly vanishes into insignificance. However, change doesn't always happen overnight. Many of these work-arounds are somewhat standard now and have been applied enough times by developers it's fairly easy to find a geeky t-shirt or two that help remind us of its woes.

With that said, it is possible to support IE6 for another year or maybe two (2010, yikes!). Knowing that there are modern Web browsers available for free download causes some frustration when estimating hours for Web projects that still require support for IE6. Let's save the developers!

What's happening:

• On June 9th 2008, Apple announced it would no longer support IE6 for it's .Mac service, which is now called MobileMe.
• 37signals (the company behind Ruby on Rails) will be phasing out support for IE6 across all their products on August 15, 2008.
• Save The Developers Internet Campaign.
• Facebook.com displays a message to upgrade for visitors using IE6.
• SproutCore JavaScript framework IE6 discussion.