YouTube Phasing Out Support For IE6

Oracle Goddess sends word that YouTube is presenting IE6 users with a banner exhorting them to upgrade to a modern browser, and TechCrunch is reporting that YouTube will be phasing out support for IE6 soon. This Twitter search reflects the jubilation breaking out all over the Net at the imminent demise of this most despised and non-standards-compliant browser. The market share for IE6 is now well down in the single digits.

Comments

Market share

[amicusNYCL]

The market share for IE6 is now well down in the single digits.

According to whom? Even on w3schools.com, which is visited almost exclusively by web developers, more than 14% of people are still using IE6.

Re:Market share

[cml4524]

Web developers are probably more likely to have IE6 around than your typical user since they need it for their job. I use Firefox exclusively at home, but when I'm having problems getting something to work on the job and need to look up a reference, I occasionally use IE either by mistake or just because I happen to be in it already.

Re:Market share

[amicusNYCL]

Testing what? Testing the w3schools site? Wouldn't you want to have your main browser open for references and things even though you might have another test browser open? Hell, I usually develop with 3 browsers open (Firefox, to use Firebug for debugging my Javascript stuff, Chrome to show the Javascript-heavy API docs, and Opera for everything else).

IE6 has lingered around like a bad fart, hopefully this signals the true beginning of the end.

Re:Market share

[Bourbonium]

This is the case in my office, where IE6 is the approved standard, and no one is allowed to use FireFox or Opera or Chrome unless they can submit a written justification to the IT standards committee and obtain their approval. That is rare.

This is mainly because we use several different web-based applications developed in-house for submitting travel claims and interfacing with our purchasing department's back-end databases, all built years ago on non-standards-compliant IE6 code. The team of contractors who developed these apps are long gone, and updating them would require finding a new contractor and paying them to re-build all the apps from scratch, a difficult sell to management in today's economy. It ain't broke, they say, so why fix it?

Re:Market share

[LordLimecat]

Theres such a thing as IE tab, which would allow both the legacy code to work (it works with OWA!), as well as allowing folks to use a modern, secure browser. Or, they could pull their heads out of the sand and realize that installing firefox|chrome|opera doesnt uninstall ie6...

Re:Market share

[Firehed]

IE8 allows you to disable standards-compliance mode for just this reason - in fact, I believe it even defaults to IE6's rendering engine for any intranet address.

Unless you're on Win2k or older, there's absolutely no reason to still be using IE6.

Re:Market share

[whoever57]

Most of them won't install just because the installer checks for 2k and denies what would be otherwise posible.

Your solution is here. I even have Windows Defender running on Win2K after using this tool.

Re:I don't know...

[TheRealMindChild]

IE6 was a decent browser, aside from the fact it was a pain to code for and insecure.

This hamburger is decent, aside from the fact that it's growing mold and smells like urine.

Re:I don't know...

[Hyppy]

I can think of a few things that make IE6 (not exclusively, but still) a horrible browser:

ActiveX
Non-standard HTML rendering
Lack of tabs
ActiveX
Lack of support for many standard files (PNG, anyone?)
Crashing when fed simple code
Oh, and ActiveX.

Re:Still mandatory where I work

[mehrotra.akash]

cant firefox be installed on a system with IE6 and IEtab used for the intranet apps, while firefox used for internet??

Mod Informative, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to agree.

I prefer to use a web browser, not an add-on, extension fluffed "application display system." HTML. No CSS, no mime-types, no scripting.

I can't say when, but /. changed something to make using this site painful 6-12 months ago.

Re:About time

[yoyhed]

I hate whatever new it is that they did, but as soon as it appeared a year or two ago, I enabled "Classic Index" in options - I can't stand how /. looks when I'm not logged in.