It is very rare for a company to actively dissuade people from using one of their products, but that is exactly what Microsoft are doing with their ancient Internet Explorer 6 (often referred to as IE6). For several years now IE6 has been the bane of modern web developers’ lives; requiring as it does a great deal of technical work to get websites to behave properly in it.
When it was first released IE6 was an excellent solution for browsing the web; however since its release 11 years ago it is now definitely showing its age. This is principally because IE6 was not designed with today’s web standards in mind. This reduces the quality of the web experience for the user, and leaves their privacy and computer vulnerable to web threats that target the out of date browser software.
What can we do?
Microsoft have set up a website called The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown which provides detailed statistics on the browsers usage worldwide. The aim of the site is to inform users that it provides a poor browsing experience, and to encourage them to upgrade to a modern web browser such as Internet Explorer. Personally I would recommend switching to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome for the best online browsing experience.
