Are you forced to develop for old web browsers?

Question

I always wondered why people are still running older web browsers until I started at my current job. Here I am forced to use IE6 to develop all of our internal applications, as our target users also are using IE6. Is anyone else in a situation where they aren't allowed to run the latest technology, and what is stopping you? Have you tried to persuade IT/management to upgrade?

Answer 1

Same IE6 here. I've heard, for about the last year, that we're updating to IE7 -- right at/before the release of IE8.

We're currently planning to upgrade from MSSQL Server 2000 to 2005 -- right after the release of 2008.

Corporations don't like "brand new" -- it's too expensive and too risky to upgrade until everyone else finds the issues. If it breaks on you, you're stuck waiting for the patch. Using something with at least a good year on it, plus a nice list of updates, and price drops, still only helps them consider it for down the road.

You can try pushing for it, and probably find they've already considered it -- but, I wouldn't get your hopes high.

Answer 2

At my college we have a curious thing:

• Nearly all desktop computers have been migrated over to IE7
• However, the 20 or so HP ThinClient terminals (basically virtual machines) use IE6. So does the Remote Access system.

I think that the IE6 usage is likely a flaw in the software running the clients as our IT staff are fairly good at upgrading (although we're not on Vista yet - are any large networks yet?).

Answer 3

I'm in a similar situation here. While we are not forced to use any specific browser/version at work, we have some customers (large companies) that are still using IE6. Therefore we have to build and test everything for IE6 as well.

There is now way how we can change that situation. We are handling the situation by using using virtual PCs to test with the old browser versions.

Answer 4

It's a catch-22. I use Opera except my bank and an airline's site don't work with it - they do work with IE6, so I keep it around.
I could upgrade to IE8 and they might work, but I would have to check every site that doesn't work with Opera, and if I found any that also didn't work with IE8 how do I downgrade?
So I stick with IE6, which means that their server stats show a significant percentage of IE6 users, so they don't do anything that breaks IE6, so nobody upgrades ....

Answer 5

The first things enterprise want to bring to their users are stability and security. Innovation is only third on the list.

They are reluctant to any change, even to those that the user ask for. With some reason : when you change something, chance are something else will break somewhere...

Innovation can bring some money (or reduce costs), but system halts definitely cost money, and sometimes a lot of money !

If I were an enterprise, I would do the same thing : don't upgrade until needed (unless, of course, you are sure to gain some points on the competition).

Answer 6

I do UI engineering for a social networking/media firm (so our audience is usually people with IE6, unfortunately). We design for IE6/IE7/FF3 and 2 Win and Mac/Safari 3 Win and Mac. The bottom line, though, is that if your markup is well formed and best practices are used (NO HACKS), then most browsers will look the same without much fuss -- even IE6.

Answer 7

First, define "old." If old is IE6, then yes. Otherwise, no.

I use Firefox on my desktop but we have IE7 installed by default. Our field offices use IE6, so we have to target them. Yet, I don't have IE6 installed on my desktop.

What a clusterfark.