IE6 — The Zombie Browser That Can’t Be Killed

IE6 — The Zombie Browser That Can’t Be Killed: "

Developers have long awaited the death of Internet Explorer 6; web heavyweight like Google, Facebook, Reddit, Justin.tv and Digg have all announced the expiration date for their support of IE6; Microsoft has been steering users away from IE6 for more than a year. And last week, a funeral was held for the outdated browser which was two parts wake and one part wish. Even Microsoft joined in the fun, sending a card to the festivities services.

So what will it take to kill the undead browser once and for all? Well, it’s worth noting — and shocking — that IE6 still drives nearly 20 percent of all web access from beyond the grave.

How is this possible? What outdated luddite segment of web users is still stuck in 2001? Well, the prime culprit is large enterprises like Intel who bemoan the cost and complexity of upgrading thousands of employees and legacy apps that were built specifically for IE6. So while the web citizenry has moved on and is ready to pull the plug, developers (and testers), IE6 will continue to be part of the web app testing matrix for much longer than any of us would like to believe.

Just to further illustrate the insanity of IE6’s continued survival, here are a few other things that were going on in 2001:

• Popular movies from that year were Shrek, Ocean’s Eleven, and A Beautiful Mind


• Top songs included “Survivor” (Destiny’s Child), “Yellow” (Coldplay), “I’m Like A Bird” (Nellie Furtado)


• Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerburg was a 17-year old high school student


• And for you basketball fans, Latrell Sprewell, Allan Houston and Vlade Divac were NBA all-stars

Does anyone have any IE6 horror stories (as a user, a developer or a tester) that they’d like to share? Anyone still willingly use IE6? Anyone’s company still force them to use it? Admitting that we have a problem is half the battle.

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