Everyone in the field has that moment; you’ve proofed your design on Firefox, Safari, IE 8/7, Chrome, Opera, various platforms…and then comes the oft-avoided query:
“Has anyone checked this on IE 6 yet…?” …..*silence*
First released on August 27, 2001, Internet Explorer 6 has set the standard for being the ultimate skid mark on the Internet’s boxer shorts. Causing designers and programmers more agony throughout the years with PNG transparency workarounds, float bugs, and other custom stylesheet ridiculousness than anything else.
Now 2 full versions behind in the IE suite, I find it staggering (sobering? vomit-inducing?) how many colossal idiots still use IE 6 as their browser of choice. Various sources in measuring usage share of web browsers estimate the collective versions of IE taking between 65-80% of the market. More specifically, Internet Explorer 6 still pulls in over 17% of the total market share. It makes me wonder what the mentality is of people who refuse to upgrade from a nearly 8 year-old browser. Mutual suffering of cainophobia? General sadism and loathing towards the developer community?
I’m guilty of the previously aforementioned proofing delay. Can’t get by with taking that chance at the day job (although I’ve argued to that effect…), but with a week-long soft launch lined up, I figured I could sort through the IE 6 issues in phases. And there were plenty. Dean Edwards’ IE7.js v.2 (thanks, Dave Ross) works wonders for base rendering normalization, even taking on PNG transparency. Over nearly a 7-day ass pounding, incorporating CSS hacks and other obnoxious workarounds, the site now looks pretty damn close in that browser.
I titled this “The Stand” because, at first, that’s what I was planning on taking in terms of backwards compatibility with the scourge of browsers. I looked into IE 6-blocking scripts and other elegant ways to suggest to those users to modernize. For some reason, when it came time to lay my cards on the table, I transitioned into masochist mode. After numerous years of being in this industry, am I conditioned to drop the soap for IE 6 in the virtual prison showers of the Internet?