...it could require a fairly heavy overhaul for modern browsers.
That's absolutely correct. I'm currently working on a web application at the corporation I work for. It's been so badly coded (long before I arrived) that making it compatible with IE7 (not to mention Firefox or any other browsers) would be a nightmare that would probably take our development team a year to complete.
And I'm not certain I entirely agree with you on the interface point. I think major interface changes between versions of a program are huge deterrents to upgrading for many people.
The upgrade from IE6 to IE7 is huge. The interface is completely redesigned and there's a host of new features (if you can call them features). People who've been using IE6 forever are very resistant to switching to IE7 because of the learning curve associated with it (note that I'm referring to the less tech-savvy). The upgrade from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 comes with almost no visual differences aside from the looks of the buttons. Of course people are going to upgrade quickly, they don't have to relearn everything.
Also, if you work for a large corporation you'll know that it's still the case in many places that IE7 is not approved for corporate use (you can use it if you want but most of the intranet sites won't work properly). Since I know there's a large number of people out there reading this from work, that will definitely factor into the percentages mentioned above.
Slashdot Mirror
...it could require a fairly heavy overhaul for modern browsers.
That's absolutely correct. I'm currently working on a web application at the corporation I work for. It's been so badly coded (long before I arrived) that making it compatible with IE7 (not to mention Firefox or any other browsers) would be a nightmare that would probably take our development team a year to complete. And I'm not certain I entirely agree with you on the interface point. I think major interface changes between versions of a program are huge deterrents to upgrading for many people.
The upgrade from IE6 to IE7 is huge. The interface is completely redesigned and there's a host of new features (if you can call them features). People who've been using IE6 forever are very resistant to switching to IE7 because of the learning curve associated with it (note that I'm referring to the less tech-savvy). The upgrade from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 comes with almost no visual differences aside from the looks of the buttons. Of course people are going to upgrade quickly, they don't have to relearn everything. Also, if you work for a large corporation you'll know that it's still the case in many places that IE7 is not approved for corporate use (you can use it if you want but most of the intranet sites won't work properly). Since I know there's a large number of people out there reading this from work, that will definitely factor into the percentages mentioned above.