IE6 needs to DIAF.
July 19th, 2009
Double margins. PNG transparency fail. An inability to recognize the common sense behind giving an element multiple classes.
Die in a fire. Yes, a good way for IE6 to go. A browser that is 8 years old and has two newer versions available should not be still around! Why? Why do people not upgrade? Apparently there are many reasons why people fail to download a shinier, more fresh-smelling IE or just switch browsers all together.
You’d think that an inept browser like IE6 should have hurtled itself toward extinction. Darwin would have thought so too, but it hasn’t. But why hasn’t it died? Why do people’s workplaces deem it okay to keep IE6 just a little while longer, saying, “Oh we don’t have to upgrade. IE6 is fine!”
It’s because IE6 is CODDLED.
People still design around IE6. People still use PNG fixes and padding instead of margins on a floating element. This is why IE6 will not die, people! We’re accommodating an obsolete, 8-year-old browser!
And I say, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”
Don’t go out of your way to design for IE6. Don’t tell it that everything will be okay and that you’ve got a bandage for its boo boo, because it’s not okay. IE6, you are the red-headed step-child that no one loves. Yes. YES! So, please go die in a fire! You really need to leave… sort of like Netscape did.
I got this advice from someone I just recently met, and I thought, “Why am I not doing this too?” It was an excellent philosophy that I just had to adopt into my moral schema, a philosophy that I will stick through as I continue to develop sites for myself.
Want to help IE6 die faster? Don’t design for it anymore! Make people upgrade or switch or just get the hell off the internet.
IE6, go DAIF.
I agree, however, I think it is the user base that is to blame. Think about all of the people that use Windows and don’t update. Ever. Oh well. I always install Firefox and Chrome when I am working on a machine for an outside job. We also install them at my work as well.
You have to give the people choices.
Nice cartoon by the way. Thanks for sharing.
Personally (and I suppose “professionally”) I stopped coding for IE6, and honestly, IE in general. I don’t do any testing with IE. I think my designs are able to transcend browsers, luckily, so it’s not like things are very much out of whack. But I’m certainly not going to waste my time fixing some alignment or padding issue that only appears in IE.
I’ve read a lot of articles on this topic–whether to dump IE support, or when and how to do it. I like the idea of a pop-up saying “HEY! Get a better browser!” but that doesn’t do anything good for folks stuck with IE because of work. MS has such a hold on the corporate world that it puts designers in a bad spot. I say, fuck it. MS can learn from others and incorporate their features and standards-compliance if it really wanted to.
It’s not so much IE that I have a problem with… it’s just IE6. IE7 and 8 render things much better than its predecessor. They’re not my browsers of choice, but they are much more bearable since they support transparent PNGs and don’t do that nasty double margin trick I loathe.
Still… the world should be using better browsers.