Thursday, September 9, 2010

I Hate Internet Explorer 6

I had to diverge from my planned post, Part 2 of Setting the Right Price, to express some deep felt emotions. As my blog post title indicates I Hate Internet Explorer 6.

It seems that no matter how hard you try to make your web sites browser compliant, IE6 just works hard to destroy all your work. You might think that after so many years, finding answers would be simple, but they aren't.

As the newer browsers continue to implement new standards and the W3C makes improvements, using IE6 should become less of a concern. If I had my way I would not even care what my web sites look like in IE6. But sadly there are some clients that still use Pentium 1 technology and find Windows 98 to be so much better than Windows XP (or Win 7 for that matter).

These lovely, well-paying clients, insist that they be compatible with a tiny segment of internet users, so they inhibit the creativity and interactivity that can come with using newer browsers. There is even a hint that using Flash will make their web sites less compatible so its back to animating GIF's.

Well, as I think about it, maybe this post is about setting the right price. These kinds of Client-Side influences can be costly. Troubleshooting a page to make it IE6 compliant could take hours (especially since most solutions seem to be dated 2008). The time you need should be compensated so set that price up front. Making a web site Internet Explorer 6 compliant should cost extra.

Oh and if you are interested in seeing statistics to help prove my point, check out:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Internet Explorer in all its forms has lost its grasp on browser users (only 30.7% use IE in August 2010).

Okay, I feel better now, I can breathe--out with the bad air, in with the good air...aaaahhhh!

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