HIMclub.com: Working With IE6 - HIMclub.com

Back in 2003, if w3schools is to be believed, 71% of people on the internet were using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, thus making it the standard at the time for web browsers. When you made a website, you made it with IE6 in mind, and that meant you made it without upholding web standards in mind.

The reason for this, is because Microsoft's Internet Explorer series of browsers had, by way of bundling them with Windows computers and deeply integrating them with the OS, effectively forced everyone to use it in some capacity; and face it, most casual computer users see the IE icon on their desktop and think of it as “THE INTERNET”. The concept of replaceable web browsers, at the time, was an alien one to a lot of people, and it still is that way today.

With IE6 holding more than 2/3 of browser market share, IE's developers were in a position to make the web conform to standards set by them, instead of making a browser that conformed to the standards set by the web.

In all of the languages that go into creating web pages, there are universal standards that are set, and all browser developers and web designers are encouraged to stick to them; this is to ensure a seamless and identical experience for anyone that accesses any web page, regardless of their browser or their operating system. IE6, though, decided to ignore these for a large amount and make their own rules. Thus, web designers had to make special exceptions and hacks just to get their pages to display in IE6. Basically, it was a colossal pain in the arse for everyone, because of Microsoft's ignorance of standards that made for pages that would only display properly for some people and not others.

This was all five years ago, and IE6's successor has arrived so this kind of problem should be something that a designer or end user shouldn't have to worry about.

Unfortunately, that's not so.

Internet Explorer 7 arrived in late 2006 and along with it's new GUI that made a half-arsed effort at blatantly copying the layout that Mozilla pioneered with Firefox, they also improved their browsers conformity to web standards from being a complete joke to merely very bad. For a web page developer, this alleviates some of the headache, but the fact of the matter is they still need to make hacks and exceptions just to make their pages work for the majority that still use the IE family of browsers – I can attest to this personally from experience. This is further compounded by the fact that in 2008, seven years after its release, 26% of the online market still uses IE6.



IE7 is already nearly two years old and its successor is almost around the corner, and it seems that Microsoft has done very little to promote it. There's no reminders popping up for IE6 users to remind them that the browser they're using is obsolete, Microsoft's other services rarely even mention that it exists. And of course, you still have those folks that think the little “E” icon on their desktop with the circle around it is “THE INTERNET”.

So, what can be done about this? Personally, I'm in favour of simply abandoning IE6 altogether, regardless of how many people like to use it. It's a poorly made, ancient relic of a browser and it just doesn't do the job anymore. People who use it need to get the message in their heads, it needs to be drilled in, plastered up and blinking in bright flashing neon, “Using IE6 to drive yourself through the internet is like driving down a highway in a car constructed of balsa wood and held together with dried spit, and you need to upgrade like yesterday”.

I'm sure this sounds like a rather anal kind of topic to be ranting about, but people who make websites will know what I'm about with this. Designing with IE6 in mind makes web designers want to strangle puppies.

So, for those few that read this, do your part and make sure, if you're using IE6, (Go to Help > About Internet Explorer to see if you are), do your part and upgrade it to the seventh version, or better yet, use a different browser altogether. Please, think of the puppies.