2009 should have been the year when the world would move away from IE6. Sadly though, it doesnt look to be the case. IE6 still has enough market share on most sites that we dont want to discount them because they cannot access the content we are providing, but the sad reality is: when you are using a two generation dated browser you cannot except to see all the new toys…

We all know in the the past taking advantage of new technology meant more work in the name of accessible content. You had to create the same site again just for people who didn’t upgrade. It often made me question why I was making the new version, when the old solution had to have all the same content and work just as well.

With more people using flash, ajax, air, jquery, mootools,joomla, and so many others its getting hard to support new tools on old platforms. It can usually be done, but  in 2009 I’m now charging a fee to clients who want IE6 support and Im adding a popup to my sites to users with IE6 that they should download a more current browser (for their own good, not just mine).

IE6 is a bad program with numerous security glitches that interprets standard code in a “we’re microsoft so the world will write code the way we read it” world view that never happened. Its very presence is hurting the internet and wasting the time of people who work to maintain it.

Ive even heard the IT department came to a friend of mine who upgraded to IE7 and told him to reinstall IE6 for workplace hedgemony. This was as recent as last week! Are you kidding me? What sort of a company downgrades their software? With stallwarts at the heml all we can do it hope.

Rob Pegoraro write a gem in The Washington Post on the problems of IE6. It worth a read if you need ammo to convince someone to upgrade.