Okay Geek Farm
Why Internet Explorer 9 won't replace IE6 for a long time
Brandon Davenport
8 years has past since IE6 made it’s way onto our computers and into our internets, and even though IE6 helped start the online revolution with new features that no other browser had, it is now holding back online innovation. For years, web designers (such as myself) have been pulling their hair out, desperately inventing fixes and hacks to support this crippled browser.
When IE9 launched this month, people got excited and the hype started flowing like lava — but soon after the browser was tested and used, the results were far from perfect. The rendering is still sloppy and the support for CSS3 and HTML5 is still lack-lustered compared to Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome — But even though IE9 isn’t as great as other browsers, it is 1000x better than IE6, but here’s the thing…
Windows XP doesn’t support IE9
This totally defeats the point of Internet Explorer 9, and Microsofts “mission” to fade out IE6. Most of you know, IE6 is the default browser in Windows XP and can only run on Windows XP, so by making Internet Explorer 9 exclusive to Windows 7 and Vista, Internet Explorer still has no upgrade path on Windows XP.
When you think of it, 100% of the people using IE6 are using Windows XP — and 100% of those users don’t care which browser they are using. Those people are Grandma, Mom and Dad, who don’t like computers and just want to access the web — and since Internet Explorer is all ready good to go (and it has the word “Internet” in it), it only makes sense for them to use it.
Microsoft: Make IE9 Compatible with XP, and use it as the default browser! — Microsoft needs to do two things. The first thing is (once IE9 is out of Beta) Microsoft needs to render it compatible with Windows XP and unify the interface so it contains the same experience across different versions of Windows.
Secondly, they need to push out an update (or even XP Service Pack 4) that will automatically upgrade XP users’ browser to IE9. Most computer users don’t understand how to download a program, and install it. If there is a simple, one click update that they are used to doing anyways, everything would be dandy. If need be, Microsoft could allow the user to keep IE6 if they desperately need it for a certain use… whatever that is.
Have any ideas or opinions? — The comments are below!
