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Microsoft Sends Flowers To Internet Explorer 6 Funeral

Several readers have written with a fun followup to yesterday's IE6 funeral. Apparently Microsoft, in a rare moment of self-jest, took the time to send flowers, condolences, and a promise to meet at MIX. The card reads: "Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven. The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft."

115 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Considering the reckless life it lead, is it any surprise it finally succumbed to all those viruses?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by teknopurge · · Score: 5, Funny

      You think IE would have used some protection.....

    2. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by lorenlal · · Score: 1

      Sadly, you have to posses the protection and know how to use the protection for it to be effective.

    3. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by jmactacular · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Reckless? Please. Everyone likes to hate on IE, but that's because we all have short memories. Back in the day, when IE 6 was released, it was easily the best browser around. And IE 5, and IE4. It is naive to think any software company can prevent every security hole at the time of release. There will *always* be a determined and clever attacker who finds a way after it enters the market. And being the biggest in the market obviously makes them the biggest target. IE also takes a lot of heat for "standards", but that's because sometimes they are inventing the thing that will turn into the standard, like the XMLHttpRequest object, the foundation of AJAX. Believe me, supporting IE6 in 2010 is the bane of my existence, but I don't think it's fair to assign blame years later, for something that was created so long ago. In fact, I am thankful they put so much work into backwards compatibility, otherwise I think things would be even worse. Ultimately, IE6 will be replaced by IE8 in the next 1-2 years as the corporate world rolls out Win7 deploys.

    4. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by mdwh2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Back in the day, when IE 6 was released, it was easily the best browser around.

      IE 6? I was happily using Opera at the time.

    5. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Stop being such a grammer nazi.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    6. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by Virtual_Raider · · Score: 1

      Stop being such a grammer nazi.

      I invoke Goodwin on you, sir!

      --
      +Raider of the lost BBS
    7. Re:Hate to speak ill of the dead, but... by amasiancrasian · · Score: 1

      No worries, IE6 will come back from the dead. It's not truly dead. It just wants you to think it is. Ever see the movie I Am Legend?

  2. Translation by iamapizza · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And by "a little piece of IE heaven," they actually mean "any other browser".

    --
    Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
    1. Re:Translation by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not true. I actually know what the announcement is going to be, and it's going to make a lot of people who visit sites like Slashdot happy (or surprised).

      Here's a hint: it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      Maybe a new version as well..

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    2. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      IE9 is entirely rebuilt with 100% HTML5 support. SVG support.

    3. Re:Translation by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Funny

      I've already said too much. They're looking for me now, I can hear the helicopters.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    4. Re:Translation by PRMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      HTML?

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    5. Re:Translation by guruevi · · Score: 1

      OGG Theora? SVG? PNG?

      Microsoft will have to follow the standards this time because people (web developers and knowledgeable customers) won't put up anymore with custom development for specific browsers. ActiveX bit and will bite many corporate customers in the behind and with the plethora of portable devices, computers are not the only hardware that receive the web anymore.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    6. Re:Translation by sconeu · · Score: 1

      ODF?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    7. Re:Translation by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's OK, corporations are starting to move on....to Silverlight ;-)

    8. Re:Translation by denis-The-menace · · Score: 1

      Don't you mean MS' flavour of HTML5
      and MS' flavour of SVG?

      --
      Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    9. Re:Translation by plague3106 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nothing wrong with that. SL will work on FF, IE or Safari, and on Windows or Mac.

      Plus its a great way to use all those MS devs out there, who (like me) don't know Flash.

    10. Re:Translation by omnichad · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree it's an improvement. But why can't corporate types just use HTML/CSS/minimal Javascript and let their software run on ALL platforms? Why does the core of any web-based corporate software have to be some plugin-dependent binary?

    11. Re:Translation by Dorkmaster+Flek · · Score: 1

      You jest, but according to rumours, that's exactly what it is!

      --
      I like to think of online DRM as something akin to a college -- you pay for lessons until you learn something.
    12. Re:Translation by HaZardman27 · · Score: 1

      it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      W3C standards?

      --
      Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
    13. Re:Translation by HaZardman27 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For one, because Silverlight makes writing web-apps much easier.

      --
      Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
    14. Re:Translation by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      Microsoft will have to follow the standards this time because people (web developers and knowledgeable customers) won't put up anymore with custom development for specific browsers.

      Wishful thinking. That's exactly what was said before IE7 came out. And then again before IE8 came out. I'll believe it when I test their next browser myself and see that it works. This is the realist in me talking.

      The cynic in me says that even if they DO start supporting realistic standards, they'll probably turn around and try to patent 'complying with standards' (or have someone else do it and fun their lawsuits against others so they appear innocent).

      I would _love_ to see them actually put out a decent browser, though. I'm just not getting my hopes up (again).

    15. Re:Translation by Tumbleweed · · Score: 3, Informative

      For one, because Silverlight makes writing web-apps much easier.

      No, what you get when you use Silverlight are *Silverlight* apps. There's a difference, and not knowing that difference is why we're in the "Can't move away from IE6" problem. Learn the lesson, please.

    16. Re:Translation by Myopic · · Score: 1

      Awesome. So Microsoft is planning to release IE9 sometime in early 1998?

    17. Re:Translation by mcvos · · Score: 1

      They're going to use the Webkit renderer.

    18. Re:Translation by paxcoder · · Score: 1

      What is MIX anyway?
      Also I'll be very angry at myself if I get excited that MS finally decided to support SVG or any other W3C standard. Their browser should just die.

    19. Re:Translation by unix1 · · Score: 1

      Here's a hint: it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      About the only things that can possibly fall into that category for me would be Theora and XUL.

    20. Re:Translation by mikael_j · · Score: 1

      What? Are you saying embedded .NET applications stored as Base64-encoded strings in XML aren't in the SVG standard? (Yeah, I made that up but I develop .NET apps eight hours per day and sometimes I can't tell if the larger Java frameworks or C#.NET is worst when it comes to that kind of "enterprise ready" behaviour)

      /Mikael

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    21. Re:Translation by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

      Not true. I actually know what the announcement is going to be, and it's going to make a lot of people who visit sites like Slashdot happy (or surprised).

      Here's a hint: it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      Maybe a new version as well..

      Dear Christ, while everyone else is off supporting HTML5 H.264 video they are only going to support Ogg Theora.

    22. Re:Translation by AVryhof · · Score: 1

      Here's a hint: it's about supporting a standard that no one thought Microsoft would support.

      I'm guessing Theora

    23. Re:Translation by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 1

      I've already said too much. They're looking for me now, I can hear the helicopters.

      Dude, relax. They're Microsoft helicopters. They'll crash long before they get to you.

      --
      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
    24. Re:Translation by echnaton192 · · Score: 1

      If this rumor is true: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/03/04/internet-explorer-9-html5-compatible-microsoft-joining-antiflash-movement/ and IE9 passes (!) Acid 3, it needs SVG-compatibility, or am I misinterpreting Wikipedia? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_3 As for the png-part, MSIE 8 has not so many problems with png, but a few minor probs: http://www.gtalbot.org/BrowserBugsSection/MSIE8Bugs/ So *if* MSIE 9 would be HTML 5 compliaqnt and if it would pass acid 3, it would be a good thing. Mind you, I only use Firefox unless I visit Windows update or a page that insists on MSIE crap (happened once in two years, not visiting again), but MSIE > 9 would force standards down the throat of all companies that are forced to upgrade to Windows 9 10 11 or whatever version MSIE 9 would be shipped with...

    25. Re:Translation by Spykk · · Score: 1

      Hmm... Theora perhaps?

    26. Re:Translation by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      That's correct, SVG support is required in order to pass Acid3.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    27. Re:Translation by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Assuming you're talking about HTML5 in IE9, isn't that (almost) common knowledge right now? You act as if it's some huge secret.

    28. Re:Translation by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Out of curiosity, what do you have against IE8?

      I haven't had to jump through any hoops for it, but on the other hand I'm working mostly in Javascript and DOM, and less in layout/CSS-type stuffs.

    29. Re:Translation by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      Out of curiosity, what do you have against IE8?
      I haven't had to jump through any hoops for it, but on the other hand I'm working mostly in Javascript and DOM, and less in layout/CSS-type stuffs.

      I deal almost entirely in HTML/CSS issues, which is my problem with IE8. I'd dearly _love_ to be able to use border-radius without having to load some javascript hack to make it work with IE (all versions). It's not that the browser can't DO them, it just requires a javascript hack to make it understand the standard way of doing it.

      For a product of a company that participated in the creation of CSS, it's remarkably behind on CSS support. Border-radius, multiple background images and border images would be great, as would css3 columns. But even if IE9 is perfect in this regard, it's still going to be years before we're able to use those standards because of the laggards still using IE6 and 7. *sigh*

    30. Re:Translation by Acaeris · · Score: 1

      You do realise all of that CSS is from an unfinished specification for CSS3? Firefox, Webkit and Opera only support them through temporary names so you can experiment with them, the naming and usage hasn't been finalised. At the moment, IE's aiming at being at least complete in its support for CSS2 (the current standard) and THEN adding some of the new features for CSS3 when it's finalised (Microsoft have avoided trying to support unfinished parts of the CSS and HTML specifications for a while now).

      Yes, this does mean we are unlikely to see Video and Audio tags finalised any time soon unless the other browser vendors can make up their minds without MS' vote

    31. Re:Translation by HaZardman27 · · Score: 1

      Because IE6 is the only browser that supports Silverlight? Last time I checked, ever major browser had Silverlight support.

      --
      Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
    32. Re:Translation by plague3106 · · Score: 1

      Because I can write and test it ONCE on Silverlight, instead of dealing the sthe stupid idosynocies of each browser. Oh, and with Silverlight I can do most of my UI testing automatically if I use patterns like MVVM. Seriously, testing a website blows because its so time and resource invensive; I literally have to sit down with each browser (and usually mutiple versions of the SAME browser) and MANUALLY test.

      In other words, its much cheaper.

  3. Something was missing.... by voodoo+cheesecake · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should have send a blue screen of death dressed up as the grim reaper!

  4. Nobody is completely evil by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Internet Explorer team has got to be the coolest group in Redmond... unless, of course, you believe the cake is a lie!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Nobody is completely evil by PPalmgren · · Score: 1

      The firefox 2 cake was pure evil. Cake with black icing stains teeth and it is very hard to remove with anything but a long brushing. Pretty much any bakery will advise you to not use black icing for an office party for this reason.

    2. Re:Nobody is completely evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Wasn't our fault. We ordered over the phone, and that's what the bakery did.

      For Firefox 3, we had an IE alum living in the area who could go talk to the bakery, so you got a better cake.

    3. Re:Nobody is completely evil by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      You couldn’t just tell them to “put the internet icon” on it?

      (Don’t ask me “what internet icon”... you know exactly what icon.)

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  5. Such a pity by ilikebees · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's so sad when a parent outlives a child.

    1. Re:Such a pity by rabidmuskrat · · Score: 1

      It's so sad when a parent outlives a child.

      Not in this case...

      --
      Need any dad jokes?
    2. Re:Such a pity by BearRanger · · Score: 5, Informative

      Better than the child outliving the parent. That's how zombies are made...

    3. Re:Such a pity by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Um, no. In fact, the child outliving the parent guarantees that it *won't* become a zombie, unless you've broken init.

  6. The flowers I'd send by greenguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And you can send me dead flowers every morning
    Send me dead flower by the snail mail
    Say it with dead flowers at my wedding
    And I won't forget to put roses on your grave
    No I won't forget to put roses on your grave

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    1. Re:The flowers I'd send by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      "Ah, I'll be in my basement room with a needle and a spoon

      And another girl to take my pain away

      Take me down little Susie, take me down

      I know you think you're the queen of the underground

      And you can send me dead flowers every morning..."

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  7. IE 9 perhaps? by dmgxmichael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmm.. So they might show up with a build of IE 9? Would be appropriate (turn a 6 upside down).

    I feel sorry for the IE team at Microsoft - they get a lot of flak for a situation they didn't cause. They didn't choose to discontinue browser development in 2003. Where it up to them IE 6 would have been superceded in 03, 04 at the latest, instead of 07. And if IE 7 had come sooner IE 6 wouldn't have become as entrenched as it is now.

    1. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by ircmaxell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I feel sorry for the IE team at Microsoft

      I don't. They openly ignore standards, because they don't see it as necessary. I was at an event where the IE team lead (this was a month or two before IE8's release) gave a talk and was answering questions. He said that IE8 will support "most" of CSS 3. Someone asked why not all of it, he replied to the effect that they don't think the parts they left out "mattered". When asked how it did on the ACID test, they said that it didn't matter, because that test doesn't test anything that's necessary (and it requires things that they didn't see a reason for)... Keep in mind, this was a developer, not a manager. So unless management has it so ingrained in their heads that "This IS the only way", these decisions are being made at the development team level... And you wonder why IE sucks so hard in comparison (and is a thorn in the side of every web developer). It's not that they don't follow standards. It's that they purposely don't follow them... They know better, but make the rational choice to be different. I have no pity for someone who thinks like that...

      --
      If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
    2. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by lorenlal · · Score: 1

      Actually, they did cause a lot of that situation. IE 6 was implemented to use completely proprietary standards, and it was a focal point for MS vendor lock-in. It was designed to pretty much launch anything that said "you should launch me." Years were spent patching its numerous security holes, and that comes back to the team that developed and supported it.

      Yes, they might not be at fault for the discontinuance of development. Yes, newer editions may have lessened the impact. But the browser was designed, built, and forced down on many of us for years, and they made it that way.

    3. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by Thaelon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They didn't choose to discontinue browser development in 2003.

      No, they did it in 1998, yet shat out IE 6 after.

      It's not like IE 6 was some first, beta version that they sent out that got adopted before it was ready. It was the sixth major release! They stopped caring because they had market share based on monopoly, not a superior browser. It wasn't until Firefox gave them serious competition that they started trying to fix it.

      --

      Question everything

    4. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by e2d2 · · Score: 1

      yeah but in fairness most developers don't get to choose feature sets. Those are chosen by "business people" that know it all.

    5. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by jpmorgan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But perhaps he's right? Everybody likes to jump on ACID as some ultimate measure of a webbrowser's worth. Neither ACID2 nor ACID3 were based on the most important or commonly used features of HTML, JavaScript and CSS, but a sampling of obscure little bits that most webbrowsers were doing wrong at the time.

      As useful as ACID are, it's important to realize that they are NOT proper compliance tests. It could be argued that one of the real failings of the W3C standardization process is that they never produce a compliance test suite. So you can't accurately state that a browser (like IE) poorly supports relevant standards, without relying heavily on anecdote.

    6. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Hell, if they even made a halfhearted effort to comply with standards it would be an improvement.

      I’m not asking for 100/100 on Acid3 (Firefox is only at what, 94/100)... Internet Explorer is only just finally passing Acid2.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    7. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You missed the parent's point completely. If the test is useless, or mostly-useless (which I personally believe ACID is), then who gives a shit what score IE gets? And, more importantly, why should the IE team waste their precious time caring about it?

      Since there's no good reference implementation, and since the W3C is fucking awful at writing standards, frankly I don't blame the IE team for anything that's happened. My only gripe is that they stopped development for so long, but then again-- why would they have bothered to developer it since their major competitor, Netscape, gave up? So even that I have trouble criticizing them for.

      Microsoft are masters of pragmatic code. The W3C is nothing but pie-in-the-sky good intentions that don't actually get day-to-day business done. (Proof: pick a successful website, any random website, check to see if it validates. It doesn't.) While the W3C was dinking around with some moronic plan to make HTML XML compatible, for several years and for God-knows what reason, Microsoft was creating real useful code.

      Look, I have no problem with people writing perfectly compliant websites, or perfectly compliant browsers, but peopel on Slashdot act as if your perfect renderer is Jesus. It's not even a tenth as important as this forum thinks it is.

    8. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

      I know it's completely out of place when discussing adherence to web standards, but the last part of your post:

      It's not that they don't follow standards. It's that they purposely don't follow them... They know better, but make the rational choice to be different. I have no pity for someone who thinks like that...

      It sounds like a citizen in a totalitarian state with stockholm's syndrome. ;-)

      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    9. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Acid2 was mostly focused on getting stuff like CSS layout to work correctly, if I’m not mistaken.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    10. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      When I looked into it back when it was new (and my memory might be fuzzy here, bear with me), I remember it being primarily about how browsers handled rare edge cases and errors, more intended to test error-handling than whether or not the page was rendered how its creator wanted it to be rendered.

    11. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Well... considering the number of ugly CSS hacks that had to be done to make a page compatible with both compliant browsers and IE... I don’t think the IE team was “only” ignoring the standards that weren’t “important” or not widely used.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    12. Re:IE 9 perhaps? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying they were. In fact, I really have no clue what you're replying to. For example, you bring up standards, but the ACID test isn't one.

      What I'm saying is that the ACID test doesn't necessarily test anything that Microsoft is interested in testing. Or anything required to make a quality web browser. That's all I'm saying.

  8. It's funny they didn't bother showing up. by voodoo+cheesecake · · Score: 1

    They could have at least sent someone to offer condolences, but after allocating $9 Billion to the clouds we see their priorities are elsewhere.

  9. Were the flowers sterilized? by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 3, Funny

    And shortly afterward, plants surrounding the funeral began to wither and die from a exotic new fungus.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    1. Re:Were the flowers sterilized? by DCstewieG · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sadly, Microsoft has a working fungicide but they refuse to ship it until next Tuesday.

    2. Re:Were the flowers sterilized? by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fungus immediately bloomed into advertisements, and funeral organizers had difficulty pruning quickly enough to keep up with what they are now calling "deadware".

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
  10. Human moment by trurl7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think that's a fantastic gesture on their part. Yes, it's all in good fun, but look - one of Redmond's lawyer types could've gotten a hold of this, and gotten some judge to issue an injunction based on a combination of ip violation/unfair competition/market image tarnishing/some other frankly-my-dear-I-just-don't-give-a-damn excuse. Yeah, it'd never hold up, but nothing stopping them from just being dicks.

    Instead, they took it in good fun, and did the human thing - exhibited humor. Yes, they're still evil, blah blah. But this has that WWI 1914 Christmas Eve soccer-game feel. So let's acknowledge it with good cheer.

    1. Re:Human moment by lucian1900 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not suing is not a "fantastic gesture on their part".

    2. Re:Human moment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Apple would have gone the "sue them" route for sure.

      Actually, I am posting this Anon because Apple might sue me for using the word "Apple"

    3. Re:Human moment by idontgno · · Score: 1

      Agreed. "Not Suing" is a fantastic gesture the precise way "not rolling up with AKs and blowing everyone away" is a touch of kindness.

      No one deserves credit for not doing the wrong thing.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    4. Re:Human moment by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps not, but joining in on the festivities was certainly more than anyone expected.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    5. Re:Human moment by jpmorgan · · Score: 2, Informative

      You sound surprised... the IE team at Microsoft does stuff like this all the time. I was under the impression that they habitually send the Firefox development team congratulatory cakes upon major releases: http://www.intothefuzz.com/2008/06/17/let-them-eat-cake/

    6. Re:Human moment by IronHalik · · Score: 1

      I think that's a fantastic gesture on their part. Yes, it's all in good fun, but look - one of Redmond's lawyer types could've gotten a hold of this, and gotten some judge to issue an injunction based on a combination of ip violation/unfair competition/market image tarnishing/some other frankly-my-dear-I-just-don't-give-a-damn excuse. Yeah, it'd never hold up, but nothing stopping them from just being dicks.

      Instead, they took it in good fun, and did the human thing - exhibited humor. Yes, they're still evil, blah blah. But this has that WWI 1914 Christmas Eve soccer-game feel. So let's acknowledge it with good cheer.

      You pretty much defined Stockholm syndrome.

    7. Re:Human moment by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

      Hey everybody! I'm announcing an iPod, iPhone, and iPad funeral service over at my house! I'll supply the food, but it's BYO dr#(^$^%*^ **NO CARRIER**

      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    8. Re:Human moment by blackraven14250 · · Score: 1

      "Not Suing" is much different than "Not Suing + Joining In".

  11. Scapegoating 101 by fserb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't think this is self-jest. Microsoft and IE team love this... the current message is "yes IE6 is broken, you should upgrade to IE8/9 because it's much better". Except that it isn't. So the funeral flowers serve them well, because they can pretend the real problem is with IE6, where in fact the problem is with them.

    Microsoft has been using this "network admins don't upgrade from IE6, it's not our fault" type of argument for too long as an excuse for the mess they keep putting web standards into.
    If everybody suddenly upgraded to the latest and greatest IE8/9 we would still be in the same place regarding IE not following web standards. We would be free of "IE6 doesn't have a clue about the box model". But we would be at "IE8 doesn't support canvas (or proper event bubble)". Just so 9 years from now they will be sending flowers to the IE8 funeral and saying sorry for not supporting canvas...
    A proper solution for Microsoft now would be to completely ditch IE backend, use one of the current available libraries like Webkit, and put in place an IE frontend that can have IE6/7/8 tabs and a proper standard backend (defaulting to the proper backend). Any other move on this area coming from Microsoft seems to be either evilness or PR (which I think it's the case).

    1. Re:Scapegoating 101 by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How much can you bitch about Microsoft forcing you to upgrade, or about the features in the upgrade, when Microsoft is giving it to you for free? If you want a browser with a different feature set, then use IE just long enough to download one of the many alternatives out there! Personally, I use Firefox, but keep IE around to handle the broken webpages that only work in IE. The only reason people are clinging to IE6 is they are still accessing pages written to expect IE6's broken behavior, and they either know or suspect that those pages will not work properly with ANY other browser.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re:Scapegoating 101 by OrwellianLurker · · Score: 1

      How much can you bitch about Microsoft forcing you to upgrade, or about the features in the upgrade, when Microsoft is giving it to you for free? If you want a browser with a different feature set, then use IE just long enough to download one of the many alternatives out there! Personally, I use Firefox, but keep IE around to handle the broken webpages that only work in IE. The only reason people are clinging to IE6 is they are still accessing pages written to expect IE6's broken behavior, and they either know or suspect that those pages will not work properly with ANY other browser.

      Because Microsoft does everything in its power to force people to use IE. This is especially true in the workplace. After my mom had gotten trojan after trojan, I tried to switch her to Ubuntu (easy distro imho). Sadly, her work required her to use a website that only works through Internet Explorer 6. She works from home, so she doesn't get technical support (except from me) and I don't want her to risk her job calling them incessantly. All she needs is a fucking web browser-- but thanks to Microsoft's shitty, broken IE anything developed for it only works for shitty, broken IE. This is intentional. It's called their business plan.

      --
      'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
    3. Re:Scapegoating 101 by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sadly, her work required her to use a website that only works through Internet Explorer 6. Unless she works for Microsoft, that sounds like more her work's fault than Microsoft's fault. Is it Microsoft's fault that businesses a) Were stupid enough several years ago to implement systems that relied on the crufty behavior of a specific browser, rather than open standards, and b) now are too cheap and/or risk averse to redesign their systems, and therefore continue to use tools that by their very design can't possibly work in a secure browser environment? Remember, this crap was built with .ASP code that just naturally assumed it could do whatever the hell it wanted to your computer. Fixing the browser security model means breaking these crufty app's fundamental design.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    4. Re:Scapegoating 101 by jonwil · · Score: 1

      From Microsoft's point of view (and the point of view of most web designers), IE7 and IE8 ARE better than IE6. The only people who dont think that IE7 and IE8 are better are the idiot managers in large IT companies who refuse to authorize the work necessary to upgrade the ONE remaining corporate intranet website that doesn't work right in IE7 or IE8.

    5. Re:Scapegoating 101 by echnaton192 · · Score: 1

      Ever heard of a concept called virtualization? Do that and mom could use MSIE for business purposes only. And no, it's not M$ fault companies built browser based software that depended on MSIE 6 and that these companies didn't change their ways in the years (!) between.

    6. Re:Scapegoating 101 by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

      Oh, it's self-jest alright. They're just laughing at a different joke than everyone else there. Laughing all the way to the bank.

  12. They did choose to build the piece of shit by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1, Troll

    IE6 is a piece of shit and the devs who build would either have to be criminally incompetent or they did it on purpose.

    And IE7 is little better. It is just XP compare to Vista. When you are the bottom, every direction is up.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  13. IE Heaven? by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I seriously doubt the existence of IE Heaven. But I hope it's there, because that would mean that IE6 is now rotting in IE Hell.

  14. Word of the day. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1
    • Oxymoron: Noun, a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in "cruel kindness", "to make haste slowly", or " IE Heaven ".
    • Serendipity: Noun, making desirable discoveries by accident, as in finding the first two examples above illustrate the third.
    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Word of the day. by clintp · · Score: 1

      obJoke, and clarification:

      Luck is finding a needle in a haystack.
      Serendipity is finding the farmer's daughter.

      --
      Get off my lawn.
  15. "Thanks for the good times IE6" by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    "I think there were three."

  16. It never succumbed to viruses by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

    It's being buried alive... you haven't heard the last from IE6.

    BTW the roses from Microsoft are infected with a plant virus.

    1. Re:It never succumbed to viruses by martas · · Score: 1

      it's not being buried alive. it's been undead for a looong time now.

  17. Send all IE users a fish ion a news paper by plopez · · Score: 1

    "IE 6 sleeps with the fishes"

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  18. You know you've been a bad boy... by Drethon · · Score: 1

    When your parent (godparent?) is trying to help hammer the stake deeper into your heart.

    On a note for a similar funeral: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070211

    (Unfortunately posted by a zombie, would someone please talk to my IT people?)

  19. If you want the results... by PHPNerd · · Score: 1

    The site has split up the article into a million pages. If you don't care to click a jillion times, here's the link for the results.

  20. I know... by mr_lizard13 · · Score: 1

    I know IE6 is dead, but I can't help but think it will pop up again.

    --
    "We live in a global world" - Harvey Pitt, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
  21. BOO! by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

    Here I am! Posting from IE 6.0. I'm not quite dead. (still have IE6 at work)

    I was giving it some thought as to why we haven't upgraded at work... what do the bosses not want employees to do? One answer is surf the internet all day. How do you prevent that but maintain internet connection so the intranet still is accessible as well as any other networked programs.. use IE6! Web pages have slowly stopped working correctly the past year or two.

    --
    "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
  22. Just wait. by flimflammer · · Score: 1

    Just wait till IE6 rolls around in its grave and becomes IE9.

  23. Assuming IE9 gets some of it right... by zero0ne · · Score: 1

    it means one less attack vector for the baddies.

    Every Windows user should be happy about that.

  24. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

    Probably misses the file, edit, view.. across the top. Tools-->toolbars-->menu bar puts those back.

  25. It just became a ZombIE by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

    Now that it is officially deceased all the thousands of instances still around are to be considered undead.

    --
    But... the future refused to change.
  26. IE heaven! by Juln · · Score: 1

    IE heaven would be: they cancel the Trident rendering engine and announce they're using WebKit.

    Come on MS, you can do it!

    --
    Juln
  27. That's kinda cute by Cyberllama · · Score: 1

    It's funny, I never thought I'd live to see the day when Microsoft became the plucky underdog and Apple became the evil empire but that seems to be exactly what's taken place . . . Sure, it's not true of the Desktop OS market, but by pretty much any other metric . . .

  28. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by martas · · Score: 2, Funny

    dude, if you're so masochistic as to like using the ie6 POS interface, then the whole "kill ie6" movement is actually good for you. more websites you can't use => more pain => more sick perverted pleasure.

    also, try chopping off your balls. i hear it huts real nice.

  29. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by mcvos · · Score: 1

    What is it about IE6's interface that you like so much? The lack of tabs? The bizarre rendering?

    Incidentally, I recently needed IE6 to test a website for a customer that's somewhat stuck in the past. So I install VMWare Fusion, Win XP, and discover this particular copy of WinXP already comes with IE8. After a bit of googling I find a couple of ways to uninstall IE8, and one of those seemed to work. Unlike promised, however, it didn't free up a hidden IE6. Instead, I had no IE at all. So I got the IE6 installer from MS' download page. Apparently, despite its widely publicised death, IE6 is still being distributed by MS, but this time I was happy about it. Or would have been, if the installer worked. It didn't. It complained I had a more recent version already installed.

    So, next step: take regedit en remove IE8 from the registry. Install again, but again the installer refused, because it claimed not to have an internet connection to download something it needed. Of course it had an internet connection, it just didn't have a browser. I reinstalled IE8, but that didn't seem to work. Looks like I managed to create a Windows installation that had no version of IE at all, and unwilling to accept the installation of one. I got IEtester instead, and that works fine.

  30. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by smisle · · Score: 2, Informative

    I sort of agree, I can't stand the new interfaces for 7 or 8 ... but I also can't use IE6 since it's not secure... enter Firefox and Chrome. You can get a Firefox theme that makes it look like IE6 if that's really what floats your boat.

    --
    I'm not a bird, I'm a super-advanced flying stealth dinosaur!
  31. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by smisle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    yes ... which puts the menus UNDERNEATH the back arrows and the address bar. wow, it looks like crap, and is annoying to use.

    Then, they added the shortcut buttons (home, page, tools, RSS, etc) to the right of where the tabs go. What's the use of adding tab support if you're going to cut the tab space in half?

    And, one more thing while I'm ranting - what's up with the "call home" connecting that IE 7 and 8 do when they start up? I expect to be able to use my browser as soon as it opens, not be locked out while it looks for updates or loads extensions or whatever else it might be doing.

    --
    I'm not a bird, I'm a super-advanced flying stealth dinosaur!
  32. What color of flowers? by jonadab · · Score: 1

    Black ones? Black roses, perhaps? That's what I would have sent IE6...

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  33. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

    Not until I am given the option in IE8 to revert the GUI to match IE6's EXACTLY.

    There is NOTHING I hate more than a forced interface change.

    If anyone knows how I can do this without installing a 3rd party application let me know.

    Otherwise IE6 will remain on my machine forever...

    I answered this for you last time: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1571348&cid=31366314

    I don't know if this is a joke or not, but in WindowsXP, if you upgrade to ie8, navigate to c:\windows\ie8\iexplore.exe

    This will load the IE6 UI, but it will be the IE8 rendering engine. It's located in c:\windows\ie7 if the computer has IE7 installed.

  34. Was the card w3c compliant? by SlappyBastard · · Score: 1

    Because I'd be let down if the card weren't improperly rendered.

    --
    I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
  35. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

    Actually I'm really glad they changed the interface, as it has helped me tremendously with getting folks off of IE and onto Firefox! Thanks IE Team! Oh, for those having trouble convincing an older relative to switch, old hairyfeet has a little trick that seems to work everytime. Don't bother talking about security, their little eyes will just glaze over, what you need is a juicy carrot, or in this case ForecastFox! Just install ForecastFox with their Zip Code at the top (menubar) and you'll find that having the 3 day forecast and weather alerts makes FF sell itself.

    Now as for your problem, I'm sorry but IE8 is pretty much IE8. What I CAN do is point you to the page that will let you make Firefox look like IE6. It is an experimental, but if you really want the IE6 look without running an out of date insecure browser this is probably your best bet. Good luck!

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  36. The good times? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    Must be the Russian cracker teams who actually sent the flowers.

    Or some marketing dudes who just love advertising.
    Oh... wait... ;)

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  37. Re:I will never upgrade my IE6. by Riachu_11 · · Score: 1

    REGEDIT4
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser\] “ITBar7Position”=dword:00000001

  38. they even copied apples idea for a funeral (OS9) by johnrpenner · · Score: 1

    Apple WWDC 2002-The Death Of Mac OS 9
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl7xQ8i3fc0

  39. Re:they even copied apples idea for a funeral (OS9 by johnrpenner · · Score: 1

    ...and probably less successfully. :-^