What technology does ie6 have that legacy system must require it?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why is IE6 still a corporate favorite in some organizations?

As of July 2010, IE6 browser usage is still lingering at around 7%. (w3schools.com) It's well known that most installations of IE6 are coming from companies that have internal software systems that absolutely require the use of Internet Explorer 6 and have the browser installed on most if not all machines at said institution.

What is it exactly about these systems that they have to use this browser to run their software?

Some initial thoughts I had were:

1. Relying on IE6's implementation of CSS for proper page rendering.
2. Relying on IE6's implementation of Javascript that takes care of page logic.
3. Special .NET web controls specific to IE6.
4. IE6 extensions/plugins required for the web app to process properly.
5. Security restrictions imposed in IE6.

What are some cases you all have seen out in the wild?

Answer 1

It's not only that these programs were written specifically for IE6, but the cost of upgrading all their internal software when it "works" (heavy emphasis on the quotes) causes most upper management to invest money elsewhere, especially in today's economy.

Answer 2

1. Vendor has not certified/tested their software for the newer browsers.

Answer 3

Most resistance to upgrades I've seen has come from users who can't be taught new tricks, such as having to adjust to a control being in a different spot on a new version of the software.

The IT department can work its butt off testing/rolling out software all it wants, but if the users don't like it, the rollout will fail, no matter how much better/faster/cleaner/securer the new version is.

Answer 4

Some internal web apps might rely on ActiveX, which only works in Internet Explorer (as far as I know). (So that would be an instance of item 4. on your list.)

Answer 5

Various theories:

• As Paul states, legacy technologies like active X or MS's old version of JAVA run time
• IE 6 had very broken CSS rendering, so anything written to 'only look right' in IE6 with CSS likely breaks badly in all the other browsers
• Sloppy/lazy developers who wrote IE6 apps rather than Web Apps
• Sloppy/lazy upper management o paid for IE6 apps rather than Web Apps
• Apathy in internal IT departments preventing desktop upgrades
• Apathy in upper management to keep front-line hardware actually up to date

Answer 6

Governments (UK, Argentina, most LA) validating IE as their default browser (i mean, not a bylaw but the whole country) since IE6 and never upgraded for almost a decade? and, Windows XP is by far the most installed OS in the world, with ie6 sp1 as the primary browser.

ie6 will be here until 2014 for final users and for goverments, i would add 5 more (at least in LA).

will the world be here by then? who knows, make your work the easier you can. at any cost. would your client plus$$ you for your ie6 version? mmm.

on the other hand, would you induce losses to a client because the visitors navigate the www with an obsolete software and you don't "support ie6 anymore"?

its an cyber-educational thing, people will realise one day (maybe prior 2014) that a browser is not a folder.