Why is Internet Explorer 6 still a corporate favorite in some organizations?

Question

... or

How can I convince my organization that I can get around Internet Explorer 6?

The need to maintain Internet Explorer 6 compatibility when developing web applications is a nightmare, but until my client decides to drop it as an official browser, I am stuck with it. I am trying to convince our system administrators to change. I have seen a long list of arguments against using Internet Explorer 6 in any environment, and I try to anticipate their refutation of arguments. So far, the only perceived benefits that I see in Internet Explorer 6 are the following:

• Group Policy Central Management
• Legacy Application Compatibility

Both are addressed to Internet Explorer 7 or later (AFAIK).

Are there any advantages that Internet Explorer 6 has that have not yet been processed by Internet Explorer 7 or later?

Answer 1

Internet Explorer 6 has been around for a long time, and the vast majority of websites and web applications work correctly.

To switch to another browser (which, by the way, will probably be Internet Explorer 7), you first need to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to justify this decision for all bosses.

Really level overview:

Cost:

• Check all web applications.
• Check if all third-party websites actually work in the new browser.
• Check all other programs to see if there are any problems navigating to the new browser.

Benefits:

• Multiple tabs?

Honestly, I do not see this if the corporation does not update the desktop, which occurs periodically.

Answer 2

I would not call him a “favorite” among any organizations. In my opinion, it is simply that large companies consider it a great effort to upgrade everyone to IE7 (or, in fact, IE8 now that it was recently released). This decision is compared to costs, which, according to many managers, has a simple answer that it simply does not matter to the business. In many cases, this may be true if there is no system to automatically upgrade (possibly a large number) of computers on the network. Many people (including me) will argue that even a moderately decent browser (i.e. IE7, Firefox or Safari) would be useful for any business. The fact that IE8 has just been released, which now makes IE6 obsolete of the two versions, will certainly encourage companies to start upgrading. The problem here is that as long as there is a significant market share for IE6, the vast majority of web designers will continue to develop sites for compatibility with IE6, no matter how poor the browser is. Finally, if you are really interested in getting everyone to upgrade from IE6, I should point you to Stop Life in the Past . "Perhaps if you campaign quite actively in your organization, you can just convince people who make decisions to upgrade , although I would not bet on him ...

Answer 3

Why worry if IE does what it should do: Browse the Internet. The so-called advantages of the new browsers, which really mean something to us, have no value in the minds of the people who manage the corporate environments that you describe.

In other words: ignorance and / or apathy

Answer 4

If they do not find any strong business or advantage, I do not think that the company will agree to spend time on modernization. What is the use? In addition, Internet Explorer 6 is slightly faster than newer versions, and business users (who don’t care about the version while it does the job) may complain.

If you are a developer, you have a reason to install all / latest browsers.

I thought my only one was using Internet Explorer 6 ,-)

Answer 5

Switching from IE6 is painful because they have to use it on every single computer in the company. Depending on the number of employees, this becomes a logical nightmare.

In addition, they will usually use any browser that has a default OS installation that they use for new computers.

Changing default programs introduces an unknown risk, and the benefit of switching should outweigh this risk. Currently, the problem of trying to update every computer probably outweighs the usability of a better browser, especially when most users will not take advantage of any new features.

Answer 6

In fact, we have a bunch of legacy applications on our intranet, some of them are written in the house, others are a lot of money for us that work poorly on IE7 (or IE8, or Firefox, or Safari, or ...)

Yes, Mercury, I look at you ...

Answer 7

IE6's market share is rapidly declining, so I expect that in a year or so the authors of AJAX UI libraries will stop testing against IE6 (just like now, they are not testing IE5.5). When this happens, corporations will have no choice but to adapt.