IE 6 refuses to die. But why?
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time criticizing Internet Explorer 6′s continued lingering in the public sector. For consumers, IE6 is at the very bottom of the totem pole of relevance. The corporate sector however, is an entirely different story. My personal opinion was that the reason for the reliance on old software and technology was simply because of legacy hardware and software dependent on the outdated browser. Well, I was right — partially. There’s actually several good reasons as highlighted by Esther Schindler in her article: “Why You Can’t Pry IE6 Out of Their Cold Dead Hands”. Now before you start jumping on this as another anti-IE6 rant, take note that this is actually a well laid out explanation.
So why exactly do businesses stick with IE6?
- Companies simply don’t know, or don’t feel like upgrading.
- One or two company dependent programs hinder upgrades.
- “Why fix it if it isn’t broken?”
- “User control”: Most popular sites these days (ie: Facebook and YouTube) rely on modern web browsers to work properly. Why spend extra money upgrading software and paying for web filtering software on top of it when a broken, standards deficient browser does all of the work for you?
When you sit down and think about it, the reasons above make sense. Though at some point, relying on outdated IT equipment will come back to bite you. Whether it be in the form of greater upgrade costs when the company is finally doing a massive upgrade or a catastrophic hardware/software failure, staying complacent with old junk just isn’t a good idea.
So do I have more respect for the companies who do hold off for such reasons as highlighted above? No. Regardless if it’s a decision of the individual company or because of a 3rd party program developer that refuses to upgrade and support newer browsers, it all comes down to cheap and/or lazy people. Update or whither out of existence.
Read the full article at IT Expert Voice
