Reasons to Stop Using Internet Explorer 6

Technology & Electronics - Software

By: wnxkitchenaid 29-Aug-2011

Introduction:

As a web developer, I believe I speak for all other web developers when I say that IE6 is the bane of my existence. I could bundle Internet Explorer 7 into that as well, but for now lets focus on ridding the world of the lingering 10 year-old plague that is Internet Explorer 6.

Other Browsers Have More and Better Features

First and foremost you will have a better browsing experience on a more modern web browser. Considering Microsoft has already released up to Internet Explorer 9, imagine everything you are missing that was added to 7, 8, and now 9. Most notable of these new browser feature is tabbed browsing - being able to open up new web pages in tabs rather than having a bunch of windows all over the place. You will also see a big improvement in speed, not to mention more security settings.

Bugs and Broken Sites Aplenty

Why do web developers hate Internet Explorer 6? Well, getting a site to behave properly in IE6 takes about 2-3 times longer than it does in all other browsers combined at the very least. Less people using IE6 means less incentive for developers and companies to include support for this browser. Even Google has already started cutting back IE6 support for some of their services. This means more and more sites won't look or behave properly, if they even work at all, in IE6. Chances are you won't even notice what you might be missing out on for some sites.

Safer Browsing

As of June 23, 2006, Secunia, a security advisory website, counted 20 unpatched security flaws for Internet Explorer 6, many more and older than for any other browser. In 2010 Google, along with other high-tech firms (Adobe, Yahoo!, Symantec...) were victims of cyber attacks, originating from China, which targeted systems running IE6. Being 10 years old, IE6 was created when the internet was a much more docile place compared to what it is now. Newer browsers are designed to be much more resilient against more sophisticated attacks that weren't around when IE6 was being developed. Some publications have even labelled Internet Explorer 6 as the least secure software on the planet! By using IE6 you could be putting yourself at a huge security risk.

IE6 Is Holding the Web Back

Save hours of work for web developers so they can spend more of their time making the internet better instead of making it work for outdated technology.

Microsoft Wants You to Stop Using It

Have you ever seen a company encourage people not to use one of its products? On March 5, 2011 Microsoft launched a website to countdown to the death of Internet Explorer 6, defined as when the usage of the ancient browser would drop below 1%. The website encourages users to stop using IE6, of course hoping those users will upgrade to the more recent releases of Internet Explorer and not resort to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

In any case, its a good idea to listen to a company telling you not to use their product...