Mozilla Gives Advice On How to Kill IE6

[Guest]

IE6 just doesn't want to let go!

Mozilla Gives Advice On How to Kill IE6 : Read more

 

[bitterman0]

While the backward compatibility argument is compelling, I don't believe that it holds water. There's orders of magnitude less incompatibility between different IE versions than between any given IE and FF or anything else.

IMO, the reason behind IE6 longevity is rather simple - it's the brain-dead "genuine windows advantage" program that refuses installation of IE7 on XP if the latter is deemed pirated. Most of the XP installations in China are pirated, there's very little doubt about that. So there you have it.

Microsoft shot itself in the foot and now they don't know what to do. Perhaps, they should blame pirates again.

 

[RipperjackAU]

[citation][nom]bitterman0[/nom]IMO, the reason behind IE6 longevity is rather simple - it's the brain-dead "genuine windows advantage" program that refuses installation of IE7 on XP if the latter is deemed pirated. Most of the XP installations in China are pirated, there's very little doubt about that.[/citation]

Indeed. The only way Micro$haft is going to break China off it's addiction to IE6 is to drop all that WGA rubbish in Windows XP and allow dodgy copies of the OS to upgrade to IE8... since we all know you need Vista and up to get IE9.

Then again... the Chinese can just go with another browser.

 

[pclee]

Pirated versions of XP are not a problem. Chinese hackers got around the "genuine Windows advantage" program a long time ago. The fact that IE6 has 34.5% market share in a country with more internet users than the population of the United States means something else is wrong. I'm thinking the big issue might be the thousands of Internet Cafes in the country running outdated equipment. The "Wang Ba" (Internet Cafe) is disappearing as home computers and internet access become more affordable, but its going to take a long time. Fact is that cyber cafes don't need the latest version of IE for users to run most of the internet games they like to play (ie CS, QQ games, and the latest Korean or Japanese gaming craze). So as long as users are willing to pay the very low cost of going to the internet cafe (about $1 a day in some places) and are not complaining about the computers having the latest version of IE, then the owners feel no need to spend time upgrading.

 

[nebun]

people, just embrace technology.....it's not that hard to do

 

[BulkZerker]

Nebun, are you steve jobs in disguise?

Pc lee hit pclee hit thr nail on the d

 

[BulkZerker]

Hit the nail on the heaf with probably 1/2 the issue, net cafes.

The other half is of course buisnesses using IE6 as some sort of prompt for some custom db bullshift. But that's corperate wolr for you. Don't make things flexible, use the first solution that comes along, not the best solution. They need to take a page from militaries and just offer a contract for the best product.

 

[megamanx00]

Kill it with fire

 

[mayankleoboy1]

ie6 cant die till xp dies.

 

[LePhuronn]

Doesn't bother me now - I'm killing IE6 within my own little circles and within my own circle of influence.

I just refuse to code for IE6, unless there is an exceptionally good reason and/or I'm paid a "legacy support" premium.

You'd be surprised how effective it is to just have a conversation with a client/prospective client, explain the situation, explain your reasoning and let them make a choice. I've even had one client kick their It department up the ass and force IE8/FireFox and Flash 10 adoption because they just didn't realise.

 

[dark_lord69]

Children's Hospitals and Clinic's of MN still use IE6... All because the haven't kept up with testing the new versions.

 

[applerocks]

VMware makes a product call ThinApp that does exactly what this article describes. Its puts IE 6 into a packaged environment that can then run on Vista / Win 7 etc. For good security practices its recommended that you restrict IE6 in this mode to only be able to access a proxy server, and then use the proxy server to strictly limit the final destinations that IE6 is allowed to go to so that it cant be used for general Internet browsing.

 

[g0rilla]

On my desktop at home, I run Firefox as my primary browser but still use IE6 for those few sites that don't like Firefox. Now that I know it pisses Microsoft off, I will never upgrade.

 

[rhino13]

Wait wait I know:

Spam *@aol.com with the message: "Warning Internet Explorer 6 contains a virus that may effect system performance!!! Click here to clean."

Have the link point to a IE9 instalation. There you go IE6 usage now down to umpteen%.

 

[f-14]

if microsoft wants to kill IE6 so bad they should just continue IE support for windows98 since there's alot of hardware/programs that use that hardware and apps.
not everybody can afford to upgrade all the time and there are alot of people who only upgrade every 10 years.
many businesses see upgrading as an unecessary expense and refuse to do so until a machine is broke and unrepairable. if a machine fits it's purpose and does what they need companies always take the most cost effective solution= wait until the machine is completely dead.
you would not believe how many 1980-90 computers are still running and how old some of those OS's are as they are the only thing capable of running that proprietary software they spent million in developing themselves. last i knew best buy was running mas90 and abc supply was running a 1980's inventory control system modeled on bakery and yes they still use the green screens!
it's like pulling teeth to show them new software and equipment!

 

[HalJordan]

A lot of great comments here with everyone bringing up some interesting points about both China and the corporate world's continued use of IE 6. Though, I think I can summarize for everyone:

Why do people still use IE 6? Because they are either lazy, corrupt, or ignorant; some individuals may be all three.

 

[nikorr]

Also companies have old soft compatible with IE6 and Adobe Acrobat 5 and they will not upgrade pricey soft "that works just fine".......

 

[bv90andy]

My theory was that no one who is still using ie6 actually cares... if they cared they would have changed.

 

[K2N hater]

[citation][nom]f-14[/nom]if microsoft wants to kill IE6 so bad they should just continue IE support for windows98 since there's alot of hardware/programs that use that hardware and apps.not everybody can afford to upgrade all the time and there are alot of people who only upgrade every 10 years.many businesses see upgrading as an unecessary expense and refuse to do so until a machine is broke and unrepairable. if a machine fits it's purpose and does what they need companies always take the most cost effective solution= wait until the machine is completely dead.you would not believe how many 1980-90 computers are still running and how old some of those OS's are as they are the only thing capable of running that proprietary software they spent million in developing themselves. last i knew best buy was running mas90 and abc supply was running a 1980's inventory control system modeled on bakery and yes they still use the green screens!it's like pulling teeth to show them new software and equipment![/citation]
That's it! I can tell with a smile that some 486 still breathe.

Not many businessmen care about Flash support in browsers or the latest version of Office. Actually most prefer not to allow employees to browse the internet unless it's related to their jobs (in other words, no facebook games) and very few users like the revamped interface of MS Office which came with 2007.

Let's not forget that older PCs running Win98, 95 or NT 4.0 won't run the latest antivirus solutions but looking from a different standpoint, most current malware won't infect these much different operating systems.

 

[eddieroolz]

I think the high number of IE6 users remaining has a lot to do with people's refusal to switch from XP. Chinese users running pirated XP doesn't help matters either.