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MS — Dropping IE6 Support "Not an Option"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the die-already dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft wants to see IE6 gone as much as anyone else, but the company isn't going to make the decision for its users anytime soon. The software giant has been pushing IE6 and IE7 users to move to IE8 ever since it arrived in March 2009, but it's still up to the user to make the final decision to upgrade: 'The engineering point of view on IE6 starts as an operating systems supplier. Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments. Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have. As engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version. We make it as easy as possible for them to upgrade. Ultimately, the choice to upgrade belongs to the person responsible for the PC.'" Of course some big Web sites aren't waiting for Microsoft. Reader Yamir writes, "Google's Orkut, a social networking service popular in Brazil and India, has started warning IE6 users that the browser will no longer be supported. Just last month, YouTube started showing a similar message."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. A user's perspective by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't want to upgrade from IE6 for one very simple reason: I think the interfaces of the later IE versions suck donkey balls.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  2. So NT, 2000, XP, and Vista can die, not IE6? by DamnStupidElf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Come on, Microsoft, if you're trying to end-of-life an operating system that's actively being deployed on Netbooks, what's the problem with turning off support for IE6?

  3. Re:If MS REALLY wanted this, by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But they aren't trying to KILL IT, they just want it to DIE.

    Like you're rich Uncle.

  4. From a user's point of view... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version. We make it as easy as possible for them to upgrade.

    .
    Quite to the contrary. Microsoft makes it very difficult for users to upgrade to the latest version. FireFox and Opera both still support the current versions of their browsers on Windows 2000. Yet Microsoft had dropped Windows 2000 from their list of OS's supported by their newer browsers long ago, even when Windows 2000 was supported by Microsoft.

    Have you ever wondered why all the other browser developers can support Windows 2000 while Microsoft is completely unable to? I mean, if the Microsoft engineers say they want to make it easy for people to upgrade, then I'm sure there must be some fundamental technical issue with IE that stymies the engineers, and prevents them from doing what they say they want to do. What is the problem that prevents Microsoft from bringing newer versions of IE to Windows 2000?