Category: Internet

  • The Final Word on IE6

    A friend of mine recently asked the question “Why the Hate on Internet Explorer 6?” He explains some very logical reasons why it doesn’t make sense to be so negative about IE6, and as I agree with him on just about all points, I thought I’d give the clearest answer I could.

    Simply put, IE6 shouldn’t get any hate. Nor should it receive any love, either.

    The best thing the web standards community (and any other smart web folk) can do is stop complaining about an ancient browser whose developer waited too long to replace, and just stop supporting it altogether.

    One of the benefits of web standards is that our documents are marked up correctly before we reach the presentational stage. One of the benefits of IE6 (et al) is that we can target specific versions using Conditional Comments. The combination of the two means we can still send our content to old browsers, but not have to bother with the presentation, thus saving ourselves hours of needless headaches and frustrations, while not punishing the users of said old browsers by denying them access to our content.

    There’s constant discussion about whether or not to continue support for IE6, and the only reason ever given these days in favor of supporting that browser is its market share. That market share is diminishing, and we’ve already reached the second beta of IE8, so let’s start dropping it already. Make the argument against supporting IE6, to your clients, your boss, your team—whoever needs to hear it, keep applying pressure and don’t back down.

    It’s time to stop supporting IE6. Period.


    This article has very kindly been translated to Serbo-Croatian language by Jovana Milutinovich from Webhostinggeeks.com.

  • A Second Voice for Mezzoblue

    Dave Shea kicks his site up a few notches with the introduction of A Second Voice, a new section of mezzoblue which features different authors writing about their areas of expertise, all relating to web design in some way.

    The first installment, Build it, and They Will Come, Nic Steenhout focuses on Accessibility. Check out the comments–they are already starting to add some useful info to the article.

  • RIP Netscape

    AOL has finally axed Netscape. Luckily, Mozilla development will continue, at least for the time being.

    Unfortunately, this only weakens the browser market by leaving IE/Windows and Safari as the only fully-supported browsers under development (if you can still refer to IE as “under development”). Yes, there are still other browsers around (Opera fans UNITE!), and yes, AOL will be giving the Mozilla Foundation $2 Million to start them off (“here you go kiddies, a little play money for the rest of your summer vacation”), but for Netscape to cease to exist is a rather important milestone in the evolution of the web, and considering the level of standards compliance Netscape has provided in a mainstream browser, it’s death is not what I’d call a good sign.

    Will Mozilla (and all its offshoots — I love using Firebird on my PC, and Camino still gets use whenever I tire of Safari’s quirks) be able to stick it out and find/create a source of funding for continued development? I hope so — I would hate to see the browser market shrink to Safari and IE.

  • Microsoft & AOL; IE Updates; State of the Web Browser

    Lots of web-related news has appeared in the last week, noteably Microsoft’s deal with AOL and Microsoft’s decision to cease development of a standalone version of IE.

    The combination of these two news bites in the same week has caused some panic in web development circles, specifically among those developers who actually care about the user experience, and who would prefer to see standards-compliant web browsers lead in the percentages.

    Some smart folks are talking over at Web-Graphics, and some interesting ideas are being born…

    Also: do not miss Dave Shea’s commentary.

  • Ephemera Rules

    I know it’s not much, but for those of you arriving here via Zeldman.com I’d just like to say: “hey.”

    Take a look around, kick the tires (this public-redesign is pretty tough when no one gives you feedback…) and let me know what you think, or what you find in the way of problems. Be aware that the deeper you delve into this site, the more inconsistencies you are likely to find…

    Almost all my readers are coming from the link on Zeldman’s site today, and I’d certainly love to hear from some of you!

    UPDATE: It was pointed out that the site was missing its archives, so for those who want to explore, I present to you: SuperfluousArchives