Here’s a link to a techCrunch article that links to yet another cute little video that someone put up on YouTube. The gist is that designers and programmers hate the stupid quirks and security holes that are present in IE6 and have mounted a vigorous campaign to get corporate IT departments to finally get on with the upgrade.
But, I actually work a bit in corporate IT, at a call center full of computers running IE6. They’re running that way by necessity, because many of the computers in that place are so old that they won’t run an OS newer than Windows 2000. How about that techCrunch? There’s a mixture of all kinds of computers in that place and some actually do run XP, but they’re all on IE6. IT departments don’t want to have to service two different sets of software across their company, and I don’t blame them - resources are always tight and are absolutely the reason that IT depts don’t upgrade. I know IE8 is free, but what about the 40 computers that we can’t afford to replace right now that aren’t capable of running it? That and the cold, hard fact that upgrading systems across an entire company brings with it the spectre of having to teach people how to use the new way - repeatedly - and having to listen to everyone from the agents on the floor to the boss at the top complain that “there was nothing wrong with IE6, why did we have to upgrade?” To make some f-ing web designers happy?
Woah, People Really Don’t Like IE6
edit : I love web design. We all do. I’m envious of knowledgeable web designers. We all are. It is beyond argument that the world would be better off if IE6 were banished forever from all computers. In addition to being a security risk for everyone (not just IE6 users), countless hours of otherwise productive programming and design are wasted trying to support it’s dumb ass. It is, however, a larger and more complex issue than you may realize.