Microsoft recently launched a program for “moving the world off Internet Explorer 6” called the Internet Explorer 6 Countdown, aptly at IE6Countdown.com. For some of you reading this, hearing about this may be somewhat amusing, for others, you may not know why Microsoft would want this to happen. I will try to address the reasons for upgrading your browser here, and why many – including myself – want IE6 to go away!
A Lot Has Happened In A Decade
IE6 was launched on August 27, 2001. A lot has happened in the area Web technology since then. Web programming standards have changed, with an emphasis towards heavy use of cascading style sheets (CSS) to position content on a Web page, when previously HTML tables were used. This has made Web code “lighter” in it’s physical file size, as well as ease of maintenance. As IE6 itself has not changed, many newer Web pages may display differently, or not display at all. This forces Web designers and developers to add functionality and code to display specific code on IE6 that is different than on other browsers, which only adds to future maintenance.
As well, other browsers have entered the marketplace, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. These browsers have been designed to render newer Web standards properly, though each has its own nuances. Not to mention newer features to the browsers, such as tabbed browsing and subscribing to RSS feeds. One feature of these other browsers is in their ability to “self-update” and apply incremental changes to the browser software, and prompt the user to download completely new versions of the browser. IE6 does not do this. Windows Update will prompt a PC user to install a new browser version or incremental browser update, but the user can opt not to install them. In some cases, a user may not even have the option – these tend to be corporate users, who centrally control what updates are made on a corporate computer.
Another reason why corporate users may not use the latest browsers is due to some corporate Web applications requiring IE6 to run. Many of these apps may not have a business need to change, thus corporate IT staff have made no efforts to upgrade the browsers. Only newer versions of Windows have come with newer versions of the browser, and hopefully by then these apps have changed for the newer versions.
So Why A Campaign?
Microsoft relied on people to upgrade the browsers themselves, and in many cases the browser never updated or upgraded. Also, IE6 was viewed as slow and unfriendly, which attributed to a migration away from them. People may use IE6 on occasion – for certain Web apps that required it – but would use Firefox or another browser as their primary browser. Thus not only did IE6 lose market share, IE browsers overall lost market share. So why not a marketing campaign to bring attention to the browser already installed on your PC?
Where the idea of a campaign around a countdown to IE6 going away is interesting, it’s just that – clever marketing. If you look at the chart on the IE6 countdown Web site, the country with the largest use if IE6 is China, which raises all sorts of questions around piracy as well as their ability to even get access to the newer browsers.
As someone who build Web sites, I have IE6 installed on a computer I use, and this is namely for testing my Web sites. My primary browser is Firefox 3, and I also use Google Chrome on occasion, both for Web browsing and testing Web sites. I agree the world would be a better place without IE6. Unfortunately I don’t think this campaign will make it go away completely.
I once had an idea about how to rid the world of IE6 – rather than have a marketing campaign, hold a contest for someone to write a virus or malware which would replace a version of IE6 with a newer version of IE. Though ethics heavily come into play, it would certainly be more effective!
What do you think of this campaign? Do you still use IE6? I welcome your thoughts and reasons in the comments of this post.
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This is pretty much a win-win campaign for Microsoft. The campaign encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of IE, and it makes them look good in the eyes of the web community because they’re trying to get people to stop using IE6.
The law comes into play regarding your virus suggestion. :)
@btn - Oh yea, the law… forgot!
And that was a nice thing to say about Microsoft!
mp/m
This is interesting. However, when I think of a countdown I think of a timed event with a definite end. This doesn’t seem to have that.
@Emily - Agreed - Microsoft wants us to do for them what they can’t do themselves.
One of the reasons upgrading Internet explorer is not a viable option in the workplace is the system bloat built into it. Having a stand alone browser capable of displaying web pages that are using the later standards is a requirement for people trying to avoid upgrades to their OS that they do not want/need/have the capability of compensating for.
The idea that only upgrading a browser would be best for people who are still using XP (which is the only OS that is pre-installed with IE6) is ridiculous.
There would need to be a version of IE released that did not change the OS in any way for it to be a viable option in this scenario.
People who still use XP do so for the intrinsic reason, it runs faster on the same hardware than the later OS’s do, and upgrading the browser in it slows the system down in the same way jumping to a later OS does. Having stand alone browsers that work in XP means no one will ever have to upgrade IE6, and even though MS has stopped supporting XP, people still refuse to go further. I think it speaks for peoples desire to not adopt unnecessary bloatware.
Maybe MS should campaign to have their own software be low overhead, streamlined, without forced integration/updates, and heavily backwards compatible, while showing consumers that they aren’t feeding a behemoth who cares little about consumers end desires/needs.
Comment by William@William - Thanks for commenting and excellent points. I am typing this on my Win XP PC within Firefox 4. However, I am probably downgrading back to FF 3 as 4 is killing my PC! And as you said, no OS changes.
Microsoft has had plenty of opportunities to decouple the browser from the OS - some even demanded by courts - but chose not to.
mp/m
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The Hot Iron strives to present unique content and point-of-view on business, technology and other topics by Mike Maddaloni, a technology strategist based in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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