MSFT, and why it won’t drop IE6
The engineering point of view on IE6 starts as an operating systems supplier. Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments. Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have.
Guess who has two thumbs, and doesn’t care? Me.
The only thing MSFT is really doing is committing to get me a little more ticked off. In reality, it’s a little bit like committing to helping one person out while dragging 3 other people around on the ground while they grasp for help by your ankle. Okay, that was a little dramatic. And creepy. But you get the point.
In summary, MSFT says they can’t drop support basically “because I said so”. Because people still use it. If IE ripped out support from companies, I seriously wonder whether they would go straight to IE8 or, would they explore their options? I’m betting Microsoft is wondering the same thing as well.
So uh, Game plan?
We smoke em’ out boys.
The only way we will ever remove the last, stubborn 10% of IE 6 users is by ripping support from our own websites. That’s where IE 6 No More comes in. It’s a website sparked by a digg blog post that encourages major websites to strip IE 6 support. So far they’ve brought on some major players: Justin.tv, Disqus, Posterous, Reddit.tv, and more. Unrelated to the org, but Facebook, Youtube and Orkut have also joined in on phasing out support.
So start effing with your conditional CSS, and making things look funky. Install the IE6 update bar. Be devious. We’re only returning the favor to Microsoft.