50% Still Using Internet Explorer 6
I read a post at Daily Blog Tips that gave some internet statistics, and I thought it was interesting. Being fairly new at building Wordpress themes, I especially took notice of the percentage of internet users still using Internet Explorer 6. While I’m more of a Firefox man myself, I can understand why a Windows user would just use Internet Explorer. If you are an IE user, please UPDATE TO VERSION 7.
Internet Explorer 6 is one of the biggest thorns in the side for a web designer. You can have a design complete and looking awesome……..until you test it out in IE6. Internet Explorer displays things differently than what is considered a more standards compliant browser. I’m sure IE5 and older are probably even worse. So the question is, why not update? It won’t cost you anything.
I’m not one of these people who are hostile towards Microsoft, but I think if you gave Firefox a try, you certainly wouldn’t miss IE. I’m sure no browser is perfect, but Internet Explorer 7 is leaps and bounds better than version 6 in every way. It looks better, it’s faster, and it’s much more likely to display a web page like it’s suppose to be.
*Statistics were compiled by W3Counter.
Chances are, a majority of those IE6 users can’t upgrade (at least in a straightforward way) because they’re using a pirated version of Windows XP.
That’s a good point……and one I had not thought of.
I’m sure there are tons of pirated copies of XP, but I would like to think that number is nowhere near the 50% mark. You never know though.
Definitely not a majority. Even millions of pirated copies would be a small minority, but it’s not even that much. Most people got Windows XP with their computers (every new computer for what, the past 7 years?), and the rest got their copies free from universities or are using volume/site licenses at work.
Those that pirate XP are only people with computers more than 7 years old that have a technophile teen in the house or the very tiny percentage of computer owners that build their own rather than ever buy a full PC, so they don’t get new OS versions with their PCs.
Hey Dan, I think your probably right. My guess is that a majority of IE 6 users are VERY non-savvy PC users. Keeping their computers updated is probably the furtherest thing from their mind.
My first visit here Anthony, nice work.
IE6 should die! It’s a complete nightmare, especially when you’re just a ‘hobby’ designer and you can’t figure out what on earth to do to fix the issues. I just give up.
hahahaha!! Die IE6! That’s funny. I know the feeling.
Well, I’ll welcome you on your first visit, and I do hope you come again.
I totally agree as it has definitely been a huge pain for me as well. I can remember countless times of having a new design done and it looks great in Firefox and IE7 and then IE6 is just completely out of control.
It would save me a ton of time if I just didn’t have to deal with it anymore.
Well Clarke, unfortunately, it looks like we’ll probably have to deal with at least a few more years. Fortunately, there are a lot of good hacks and work-arounds, but figuring them out can be tricky.
So.
You’re a web designer.
Your market is greater than 50% IE6.
and yet its the last thing you design for…
eh.
That is the backwards approach.
Actually Greg,
It’s not the last thing I design for. Now it’s one of the first things I check. That doesn’t make it any less of an annoyance.
I’ve been making themes available for a short amount of time. When I learn something new, I put it into practice.
A lot of people are still stuck with XP SP1, or even no service pack at all. For instance, my brother’s laptop will not play well with SP2. They can’t upgrade to IE 6, though my brother does use K-Meleon.
A big reason for the use of IE6 is large office blocks where there is a IT geek with a firefox tshirt on saying “We can’t roll out IE7 just yet its not proven to be stable ehhhhhh”. What the world needs to do is kick people like this in the teeth show them that vista has been out now for half a year and IE7 on XP is an update on windows update!
Rant over:
People on IE6 should turn on windows update. you can use css to specify a stylesheet for normal people and a stupid bodged one for IE6 people.
Funny and releiving to read other peoples troubles with Ie6, found this article when the I searched (“why do people still use ie6′?)… I would have thought those clever enough to get pirated versions of os would be into getting the latest ones too. Still death to ie6 I say, but I suppose its made my job as a web designer closer to rocket science than I’d imagined… when trying to get consistency with css styling across all the browsers! Rock on “!
You can’t ignore IE6 as much as you might want to… Latest numbers I’ve seen show it’s still at about 48%.
Why not upgrade to Firefox? I agree 100%! But how many people you think will REALLY do that?
Pirated copies aren’t the problem… Inertia is the problem… Lots of folks have IE6 and have used it for years. They don’t care about standards. They don’t care about PNG transparency. From what they can tell, IE6 works JUST FINE and why fix what ain’t broke?
Add to that the fact that MS can’t give away Vista at this point… So you are gonna have a lot of folks who hang onto their old XP machines for a LONG time, and see no compelling reason to move away from a browser they have become comfortable with. And all us web developers just need to live with that.
@Alex – Rocket science? – I know what you mean. I get quite a few opportunities from bloggers who are trying to customize a theme on their own, and run into IE6 problems.
@Chazzer – I agree you can’t ignore IE6, although some well known designers have suggested it. I also agree it will be around for quite a bit longer, especially as you mentioned, with the popularity that Vista is lacking. I don’t know if it’s just that many folks don’t care, I think there are millions of pc users who use the internet on a very limited basis, and have no idea what the difference is. Just a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what web standards were.
Yeh, I scratch my head at the designers who say we should ignore it. If I did that my phone would ring NON-STOP with clients saying “I just looked at my site on my neighbors/wifes/coworkers/etc computer and it’s a DISASTER!…”
I don’t need those sorts of problems. Accepting and dealing with IE6s problems, while frustrating, seems to me to be the more responsible approach.
IE6 is the reason why I want to quit being a freaking web designer. It’s just too much of a hassle to serve a stupid browser which is not even standard-compliant in the first place. If anyone wonders why people hate Microsoft, this is one of the reasons. They often create programs which do not confirm to the generic specs of web standard and yet they do little to encourage people to move to the next version of their browser. Die Microsoft!
Don’t upgrade to IE7 – JUST GET FIREFOX! Or Opera, OR Chrome – even Safari for Windows!
Actually, Safari for Windows is pretty slick. Anyway, the paths for upgrades is multifarious and rich.
IT’S DYING, IT’S DYING, IT’S FINALLY DYING…
Hang on a second here. Do some of you call yourself web-designers? As the owner of an E-commerce store I’d be looking for a web designer that sees the neccessity of catering for the millions of people out there still using Win2000 or even Win98. People who don’t spend their lives and their incomes on unneccessary upgrades because the computer they have is adequate for their needs. Why should they upgrade their computers to accommodate you? They shouldn’t have to. It’s your job to ensure cross-platform compliance (especially where the platform is still used by millions) So stop moaning about customers who don’t have an anal obsession with computers and find a way of matching your designs to customer needs.
Dusty,
When building sites, I’ve always taken the extra time to ensure the page renders well in IE6. That being said, it’s still no less a headache to deal with. Like I mentioned in the last paragraph of the post, there are plenty of other reasons to upgrade.
What Anthony says is wise. It is important to cater to as many people with money as possible but you also have to consider your costs. Why spend 4x the time to develop a web app when all you’re really doing is becoming a slumlord of the e-commerce world? Just because you CAN dumb a website down enough or add enough hacks so people on old outdated browsers can send you their money doesn’t mean you SHOULD. I’d just as soon display a message for those using an old version of ie to update or download firefox with a link. They’d be happier with their browser upgrade then their e-commerce purchase and would probably give me return business because of it.
It’s 2009 and MS is coming out with IE8 and people are STILL using IE6 … why?? You say it’s because they don’t have an anal obsession with computers but my mother in law who doesn’t know jack squat about anything remotely related to computers has IE7 installed because she had her freaking updates turned on (by default) and it installed automatically as it should. People still using win98 are going to have many other problems then just ie6 has well. Let’s not even get started with all the other reasons to upgrade. Please.