Why You Can't Pry IE6 Out of Their Cold, Dead Hands

Esther Schindler writes "It's easy for techies to enumerate the reasons that Internet Explorer 6 should die. Although the percentage of users who use IE6 has dropped to about 12%, many web developers are forced to make sure their websites work with the ancient browser (which presents additional problems, such as keeping their companies from upgrading to newer versions of Windows). But rather than indulge in an emotional rant, in 'Why You Can't Pry IE6 Out Of Their Cold Dead Hands,' I set about to find out why the companies that remain standardized on IE6 haven't upgraded (never mind to what). In short: user and business-owner ignorance and/or disinterest in new technology; being stuck with a critical business app that relies on IE6; finding a budget to update internal IE6 apps that will work the same as they used to; and keeping users away from newer Web 2.0 sites."

Comments

Re:This is news?

[TheRaven64]

Java appeared a year before ActiveX. It's not exactly a direct competitor though, because Java is a cross-platform distribution mechanism, while ActiveX is a way of packaging Windows applications for Internet distribution. To say it had no legitimate competitors is somewhat misleading, because it doesn't really have a legitimate use either. It's not a web technology, it's a Windows technology. It allows Internet Explorer to be used as a platform for easily deploying Windows binaries to workstations. There are a lot of other tools for doing that, including some quite successful ones from Novell that were widely deployed before ActiveX was introduced.

Re:Old Standards Never Die

[Anonymous Coward]

That is an urban legend.