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IE no more: the move to destroy Internet Explorer 6
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If you see this when you go to WIkipedia,
We need to talk.
If the upper left corner of this window has a pretty blue back button, long story short: Thank you. You've done your part.
For the rest of you and the curious, it's apparantly high time you get with the program, says web developers. Internet Explorer, or IE6 for short, is a browser that a large part of the world still uses (25% of users as of last year). While at one point having over 95% of the market share, it is now an obsolete program. With the most recent version being IE8, IE6 is holding back the entire internet. With Silverlight, a graphical tool released by Microsoft not too long ago and updates to Java, Flash, and HTML now supporting video, the amount of sheer stuff the web can do now is amazing...and often too much for IE6. It is this outdatedness that compels developers and those that create innovative web content to pull their punches. IE6 lacks support for a lot of modern web standards.
An organization, IE6 no more, is trying to destroy IE6, paving the way for new technologies to hit the web. Users on some sites like Facebook and Digg are already showing their support for the movement. Howver, many IE6 users on digg feel no need to upgrade, which is interesting, given Digg users' inclination towards new software. Microsoft has also made the claim that they will not drop support for IE6, which is fortunate, since a large portion of users still on IE6 are only doing so because thats the browser they have at work (about 70% of IE6 users, according to Digg's poll). It costs companies time and money to train new employees on more current technologies. It also makes sense not to allow one's employees better access to YouTube.
Personally, I liked IE6's seamless ability to access FTP folders just like Windows Explorer, but tabs are becoming increasingly necessary, given the amount of multi-tasking we do (I have 8 tabs open at the moment, and am also watching Valkyrie and breathing. Booyah.). Sites like Youtube and Facebook are constantly improving the interactivity of their sites and users are getting left behind, and that may be what has to happen. Developers are beginning to disregard IE6 compatibility, forcing users into the switch in order to usher in the change more quickly. Education about IE6's vulnerabilities to viruses and other malware has also led to users upgrading.
So what does this mean for you? If you have IE7 or IE8, you're fine. If you have Firefox 3.x or Google Chrome, you're even better. You're using the platforms that the future of the web will use. If you're still on IE6, note that the switch is entirely your decision. If you have IE6 at work, ask your system administrator if he approves of you updating to a more current version or installing an alternate browser. If you're at home, just get Firefox 3.5. there's a large library of add-ons that make browsing more fun. For example, Morning Coffee allows you to program your routine of sites you visit on a day-by-day basis, based on how often they update, and with a click of a button, it will open all your daily links in new tabs. A sample of my setup, minus email and news sites:
Sunday: Postsecret, Woot.
Monday: XKCD, Reallifecomics, Woot.
Tuesday: Reallifecomics, Woot, Theslackerz.
Wednesday, XKCD, Reallifecomics, Woot, Zero Punctuation.
If you don't know what version you're using, go to help->about. That should tell you what version you have. Happy browsing!
Tony Bownes is an Electrical Engineering Major at Christian Brothers University who loves two things. Journey's concert at Mud Island last week and shamelessly plugging his favorite webcomics (honorable mention webcomic).
