I just now (again) updated a website with a feature that required some special attention to keep it functional for IE6. I’m afraid though, that despite any technical education and cajoling that knowledgeable users do, the staying power of an included browser that was installed with a fairly stable OS release from the most monolithic vendor in the industry isn’t likely to disappear quickly. The sheer volume of users whose systems are supported by inefficient, bureaucratic and/or resource-strapped evaluators and implementors of new technologies ensures a very long and slow turnover. At every opportunity, you have to evaluate the extent to which you can or should enable the old tech to continue, and the extent to which you can push the new. You have to ride the line of maintaining technical functionality for the old, while showcasing the shiny new. Like Detriot.

Hello Dan, i’m sorry but i have a question and i don’t find a response anywhere.
I want to write in the comments of my blog “2 weeks ago” or “3 days ago”, like you in your comments but i don’t know why do that. Could you help me please ? What is the code you use ?

Thank you :-)

I’m honestly to the conclusion that defining support as pixel-perfection for IE 6,…,IE 8 is only worth it if it’s within the client’s budget. It takes time, energy, experience to tweak a lot of the quirks.

Education is key. Screaming “Ugh that browser sucks” has yet to do anything for any of my clients; and ones in managed environments (schools/corporate offices) are ready to move to the next freelancer at that point.

I’m personally a big fan of some graceful degradation for older browser (or those that have limited support for CSS/JS/etc.). I’m firm on the notion that content should be accessibly delivered to the user in a usable fashion, but if they want the goodies, they need to upgrade ;]