Sergey Bryukhno

Support or not support IE6 (Internet Explorer® 6)?

The Internet Explorer® 6 browser was released in 2001. The variety of statistics shows that today about 20% of Internet audience continue to use IE6. The fact that needs to be mentioned that the percentage of IE6 users has dramatically going down.

Why users do not update their browsers to a new versions? If you look through many Internet forums you could define one basic tendency. IE6 is still a corporate standard browser for companies that use specific software compatible only with IE6. This is a cause why they don’t update browsers to a new versions. At the same time installation of other browsers, for example browsers Firefox, Opera or Safari, is prohibited by corporate network policy.

If not to say only about corporate computers it should be mentioned that Windows Update application is running by default in Windows® XP and it updates automatically Internet Explorer® 6 browser to Internet Explorer® 7.

Since 2001 Internet technologies has grown progressively but using all the cut edge technologies is impossible with IE6. IE6 does not conform Internet standards and contains serious security bugs. That is why to achieve conformity with IE6 requires to do a huge compatibility work.

This year many Internet services, like Facebook and MobileMe from Apple, officially dropped IE6 support.

Today we can conclude that IE6 become a specific browser that requires specific website development approach. In that way website development compatible with IE6 is about development process of 2 websites. First is compatible with common browsers. The second possibly has less interactive interface but developed compatible specifically with IE6.

The problem can be solved by notification of IE6 users that they are using an outdated browser and the website might not work or look as expected.