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Is Internet Explorer 6/7 Support Required Now?
k33l0r writes "Following Google's announcement ending support for Internet Explorer 6, I find myself wondering whether we (Web developers) really need to continue providing support for IE6 and IE7. Especially when creating Web sites intended for technical audiences, wouldn't it be best to end support for obsoleted browsers? Would this not provide additional incentives to upgrade? Recently I and my colleagues had to decide whether it was worth our time to try to support anything before IE8, and in the end we decided to redirect any IE6/7 user-agent to a separate page explaining that the site is not accessible with IE 6 or 7. This was easy once we saw from our analytics that fewer than 5% of visitors to the site were using IE at all. Have you had to make a choice like this? If so, what was your decision and what was the reasoning behind it?"
Somebody needs to bust out the teeth of a whole lot of the self-styled 'web designers' out there.
I mean, really. You're NOT a designer. You're not a programmer. You're not an engineer.
My mom was a Church Secretary for many years. She typed the bulletin every week, and the newsletter every month onto stencils. For the mimeograph machine to print.
That's what you're doing, web 'designers.' Deal with it. You're an information delivery clerk. Get outta the way of the information.
Shut up.
There is nothing worse than useless web developers whose only aim in life is to be the only jerk-off still supporting IE4.
Blind people don't use Lynx (spell it right) so testing in Lynx doesn't tell you enough like it doesn't tell you anything about the blind person's accessibility software's awful JavaScript handling.
Instead of touching yourself over supporting IE3, why don't support the main browsers, buy some accessibility software and test your site with that.
On an unrelated note, I'm tired of accessibility douches telling me to ensure everything caters to the gimpiest person on the planet. Accessibility expert isn't even a real job. It's like SEO expert. It's a title some failed web designer gives to himself. Anyway, the largest problem with accessibility is that the software is awful. Expecting web developers to work around shit software is stupid. The software needs to be upgraded. Last time I went to one of the supposed more popular web accessibility software sites, it wouldn't pass your Lynx test and it contained broken JavaScript and Flash. This is from the company selling the software. Why do you think anyone else cares? They don't.
Someone needs to develop open source accessibility software so everyone can contribute and it doesn't lag behind because there's no commercial viability in developing software 3 people use.