Special thanks to Matt for this write up regarding IE6 Independence, in response to 37signals’ landmark decision to remove IE6 support in their products.
Just by the mention of IE6 in a party full of web designers and it’ll turn into a complaining, ranting, whining session. Believe me, the thing every web designer out there loathes about is making sure, by hook or by crook, that their layouts, designs and whatnots display accurately (or if accurately is overrated, then correctly) on that bigass browser.
The glorious history of IE6
Born on the 27th of Auhust 2001, IE6 was the most widely used Internet browser of it’s time, with a peak usage share of 95% in 2002, introduced alongside with Windows XP. IE6 provides a flawed, partial support for CSS 1 (that explains everything!), not to mention it’s buggy, problematic and horrendous rendering of alpha transparency in PNG graphic. There is a whole long list of serious bugs in IE6, which has cost designers to sacrifice thousands of work hours trying to fix that weird double margin or expanding box problem, and not to mention, time and effort spent on swearing, cursing and voodooing IE6. This pie chart explains everything about our frustration (note the green section):
The blog post on 37signals has tried to put the idea across very nicely (they’re such angels!):
IE 6 is a last-generation browser. This means that IE 6 can’t provide the same web experience that modern browsers can. Continued support of IE 6 means that we can’t optimize our interfaces or provide an enhanced customer experience in our apps. Supporting IE 6 means slower progress, less progress, and, in some places, no progress.
Read more on 37signals’ blog post.
teddY-risatioN™ Zeta & IE6
After spending countless hour googling for IE6 fixes and painstakingly trying out the fixes individually, but none of them seem to work to my liking. So I’ve finally concluded that it’s time to withdraw my theme’s support for IE6 visitors - three and a half years of visitor tracking data tells me that overall, less than 8% of my visitors are using IE6 so I think not supporting IE6 will not be much of a problem for me, and for them. I even took the liberty to create this cute little warning message for visitors who are browsing through IE6 and below (click to view full size):
*NOTE: If you realised something is amiss, do not panic - this is a mockup (in fact, it’s shot in IE7 because I simply do not have IE6). By right, the PNG images will look really very crappy.
In case laziness got the better of you and you refuse to click on the thumbnail, here’s the message:
You are currently using Internet Explorer 6 or below - these versions of Internet Explorer do not display, or render, the alpha transparency in PNG graphics properly. It’s highly recommended that you:
(1) upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, which is possible if you’re using a counterfeit copy of Windows, or
(2) download and install Mozilla Firefox 3 or Safari 3
Oh, and if you’re wondering how did I target this message specifically towards visitors who are using IE6 and below, I’ve made use of the conditional comments that is intepreted by IE but regarded as just normal comments by other browsers (thus they ignore it).
<!--[if lte IE 6]>Place message here<![endif]–>
*NOTE: lte means ‘less than or equals to’, thus the message will be displayed to visitors using IE6 and below.
It’s not the end of the world yet…
When I say withdrawing support for IE6, that does not hint to you in one way or another that I’m not supporting Internet Explorer in general. IE7 did way better than IE6 (although it still pales in comparison with Firefox - that’s what makes Firefox 3 a kickass good browser), and hey, there’s still IE8 to look forward to (it’s still in beta, and still suck at Acid3). On a side note, Microsoft has no plans to fully embrace the standards set by Acid3 - how disappointing, tragic and absurd, since other browsers are killing to get 100/100.
Chris Wilson [MS] (Expert):
Q: What do you guys think of the Acid-tests, especially Acid3? Is it your goal to let IE 8 pass Acid3?
A: Alex, The ACID3 test is a collection of interesting tests, spread across a large set of standards. Some of those standards will see improvements in IE8 - in fact, IE8 already improves on IE7’s score - but we are focused on the most important features and standards to make web developers’ lives easier. The ACID3 test does not map directly to that goal.Read the interview at Expert Zone Chat.
Plus, there’s other browsers for you to choose from. I personally recommend Firefox 3.0 and Safari 3.1 - I have both installed because I use them for testing purposes, and remember, the more the merrier 
Opera isn’t half bad, but it’s less common.
What do you think?
What do you think of IE6? Rant, complain, whine - you can do that 
oh, and what do you feel about the withdrawal of support for IE6? Thank you for reading!
21 responses to IE6, so this is goodbye! » Leave a response
Teddy! First thing I did after getting here was look at your bio page. You’re three days older than myself ^.^ Near-twinz (-z for that extra internet effect) I’d say if I didn’t already have one
AND. IE6. My old lover actually. While I do understand why you want to withdraw support for it, take a look at this page:
http://crazyegg.com/snapshots/report/18
It’s a demo for a web analyzing tool (looks very handy btw). Now click on Confetti, change the drop down menu to browsers and see the statistics. Might come in handy if you wish to analyze your site. Notice how IE6 is used by 8 times the crowd that IE7 is? That just goes to show how sad IE7 is, in my humble opinion. Also, take a look at this article: http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/browsers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801958
Might prove some interesting reading material. 45% is scary
I also think I am the only webdesigner (if I can call myself such, brace yourself, this is outrageous!) that have a love for IE6. I’d rather have the complete badass IE6 browser compared to the only sneaky IE7. I also have massive amounts of memories with IE6 back in my Windows days. (Didn’t use any other browser, and yes, I was ‘enlightened’ of such things as Opera and Firefox.) It also makes for good discussion material with other webdesigners.
Anyway, I think this comment has reached its optimal length, so I’ll leave it at that. I have tonnes to say about IE6 & IE7, but I won’t clog up your comments with it ^.^
Check out Hanne’s last blog post: Wikipedia
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That must be some pure coincidence - we have birthdates that are three days apart
wow! This must be weird, but throughout my whole life, I’ve only known ONE person who has the same birthday as me. It’s bewildering me because a famous mathematical fact proves that with more than 20+ people in a room, there’s a >50% chance of somebody sharing the same birthday as you…
Before Firefox came about, I’ve been designing my layouts and calibrating them for display in IE6! Thanks for the link, they do have a lot of visitors arriving via IE6, but anyway, that’s for their site
I’ve checked my blog statistics and about 8% of my visitors use IE6, so withdrawing support isn’t much a problem to the majority of my visitors, I hope…
In the good ol’ days in middle school when I started learning HTML and webdesign, there’s only one single browser I’ve known, which is nothing else but IE6. The good old memories of IE6!
p/s: Just curious, what brought you here?
I can understand your frustration Teddy! IE is the bane of any webmaster’s life. In fact (i know this is bad) but I’ve given up designing for it, it gives me too many headaches. From now on my motto is that you really should have FF. Its so much better!
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Thanks Nel! I’ve not given up on IE6 previously because I wasn’t using any PNG graphics at all and so all other margin bugs and whatnots can be fixed by a separate stylesheet… but when PNG comes into the picture for my latest design, IE6 has to go…
And I couldn’t agree more with you that Firefox is a zillion times better!
I can count in one hand how many layouts have actually been deemed successful for IE6 viewing. I have always seen it as an act of laziness on my part. After all, I am using FF. Who cares about IE? (Well, I do extra checks on IE7, but I almost never use the damn browser because I do find it a little bit more annoying than IE6.)
As for withdrawing the support for IE6? Go right ahead. Good riddance, if you ask me. But if I am stranded on a deserted island with only IE6 to use with the magical island wi-fi and there is no possibility for upgrading and downloading new browsers (this example makes NO sense, but bear with me.. I’m not fully awake yet!) I’ll understand that it was purely karma acting out on me. Haha!
What I’m saying is that if I find myself in a net cafe with a dinky computer that only supports IE6, then I would fully know how it feels to be left behind from the rapid progression of the internet. =)
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Nope it’s not your laziness
blame it all on IE6. For my past layouts, I have to create separate stylesheets to fix the most common bugs in IE6… and because of IE6, pixel-precise positioning of visual elements is impossible, special thanks to its whacky interpretation and inheritance of margins and paddings.
If I am really stuck on an island with IE6 and nothing else, I might as well just feed myself to the sharks
it’s sad that so many cybercafes are still running IE6 because IE7 is for free, even for computers with counterfeit copies of Windows… 
I’m amazed that one hotel in Singapore my parents once spent a night in have IE5.5 running on its Internet terminals… and it was 2007!
I’m not sure if you’re misunderstanding 37signals withdrawal of support?
37signals is a business software firm (much like Wordpress except for businesses) producing CMS for project management and contact management etc. Their support withdrawal would mean that their CMS will incur problems if accessed from IE6. This means that we will see many SMEs reliant on 37signals’ products (small medium enterprises) phase out IE6, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that many homes and large enterprises with proprietary CMSes will.
Statistically, this shouldn’t change for personal bloggers like us since most people who access our sites do so from their homes. Besides, our visitors’ age group are generally that of students, who are mostly quite tech savvy. So, I don’t think we’ll be seeing any statistical changes with 37signals’ lack of IE6 support.
With all that said though, IE6 is too ancient for me to give a damn.
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I think it’s a matter of perception? Being a firm that publishes CMS, relinquishing support for IE6 means a lot to them and their clients… so it might signal other firms to withdraw support for IE6 as well.
No matter what IE fixes I’ve used, my blog doesn’t display well on IE6. I’m giving up on it so that’s goodbye for IE6 this time
I’d say good riddance, IE6 should have died of many years ago. The initial adaptation on it was also great to see, it’s a shame it stalled down a bit. But we definitely can’t keep on going with trying to keep stuff compatible with something outdated so badly.
Seeing as to how modern browsers are completely free to download they really don’t have any reason not to upgrade anyway.
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Definitely. IE6 is as old as Windows XP… SEVEN years old to be exact! Continuing supporting IE6 will only mean one thing to Microsoft - they still have control over the Internet and they can do whatever they like with their layout engines without abiding to the W3C standards. Luckily Firefox, Safari and Opera got popular in the last few years, which forced Microsoft to renew it’s strategy and roll out IE7 to appease furious users. Without these free browsers, we might not have IE7.
Same here, I find it absurd that people are not switching to browsers that are free! Don’t tell me we’ll need to pay them to make them switch
http://shadesofme.org/2008/07/02/damn-that-just-happened/#more-195
This was the site that brought me here, I was randomly blog surfing
And I know one person too with the same birthday as moi. But that’s kind of a given considering he’s my twin (refers to previous comment).
IE6 is indeedo luv! It makes for good amusement too to see who has coded their websites to pan out for IE and who hasn’t.
Check out Hanne’s last blog post: Wikipedia
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Ie6 BLOWS. LOL. I’ve posted that same image in my blog before too.
Thanks for sharing that code. I’m going to (eventually) put that up on my site. *favors entry*
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I agree with you that IE has lots of problem. I remember those days when I still use IE as my primary browser, keep on facing error every now and then.
Currently, I am using Firefox as my main browser, but I have yet to upgrade to the latest Firefox 3.0. I heard positive and good review about this Firefox 3.0. Anyway, I am still using IE as my secondary browser, in case some application does not load properly with Firefox.
I am planning to give Safari a try also.
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When there’s only IE6 back then, I’ve tailored by designs to have them displayed accurately on IE6 and nothing else… and a few months ago when I dug up my old designs to be viewed in Firefox or Safari, they looked like a total mess
as expected.
I primarily use Firefox for web browsing - the Safari and Opera browsers are for testing purposes only
you should really get Firefox 3.0 because it fixes a lot of bugs and there are new addons that are tailored to meet FF3’s needs. But be reminded that FF3 installs over FF2. Don’t worry, your bookmarks and settings are all kept intact.
My previous blog was a total mess, when I tried it with IE. It really gives me headache.
It is good that all my bookmarks and settings are untouched after installing Firefox 3.0. Let me install first, and I will let you know my opinion on Firefox 3.0.
Check out hp84’s last blog post: Jang NaRa
I never knew it because I do all the web surfing through Firefox
that again emphasizes how good and user-friendly Firefox is anyway. I hate fixing problems that are specific to Internet Explorer because that’s the problem with IE’s layout engine and not your coding. Microsoft should improve on their layout engine and not depends on web designers to search for hacks and fixes.
Have fun with Firefox 3!
Lol I love your IE6 message there. I try my best to make my sites compatible with IE6 as well though. Because a lot of my visitors still use IE6. I think it’s worth going into your site statistics and see if you actually should cater for IE6 visitors.
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yup. you’re right.
IE6 does makes our [webdesigner] designing + coding process like HELL.
im about to withdraw from debugging in IE6, but, i just can’t do that yet.
F**k You IE6.. you wasted my time! ergh!
Microsoft doesn’t care with what we wanted to have? Are they stupid? We are the one who makes Internet is a must for their customer.. They’re just such a loser in reaching better things, thats why they said it is nothing to chase for. Dumb You, MS!
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Definitely! I second your thoughts about IE6. In fact it’s the amount of fixes and workarounds web developers have made for IE6 that causes Microsoft to be reluctant to improve their layout engine. And it’s even funnier when IE8 team announces that they’re not going to aim to pass Acid3 test… come on, Firefox 3 and Safari score at least 5 times better than IE8
haha. I’ve withdrawn IE6 waaay before you for I did not want to die for too much headache tweaking my design to fit IE users. Gosh! I HATE IE6. IE7 is fine. I don’t understand why people still use IE6. stupid IE6. Maybe I should make such message like yours, teddy. It’s a briiliant Idea. Great post!
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Wise choice, Aisyah! I hate creating a separate IE6-hack stylesheet because it’s just too troublesome. I couldn’t figure why people can be stubborn enough not to accept a free upgrade to IE7. Very puzzling!