I am a simple guy who became a web designer and developer. I am a normal guy who tries to live in peace and make a living from what I do, why I have to suffer because something called IE6 exists?
The reason why I am writing this blog post is it happened that I got a thread in my thesis skins support forum from a member who asked why my skins are not working on IE6, so I replied to her in the forum, then I thought this information worth re-publish about it today even though many other have been killing this topic.
Before I go on, I just want you to know that Internet Explorer 6 was released on August 27, 2001 (Source: Wikipedia IE6). Microsoft was trying to do something good that turns to be the worst nightmare ever for web designers and developers, however it is not Microsoft’s mistake, and I am going to tell you why people still using IE6.
We have a website that doesn’t show correctly in IE6
What should I do?!
My answer is: Absolutely Nothing!
Forget about it, pretend that IE6 doesn’t exist, get back to your normal life and take care of your business.
Why people still using IE6
I am sure if I try to answer this question I won’t be accurate and fun than Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks.com, this guy is hot and I am following him since long time because he knows what he talks about, he wrote a good one back to 2008 where Matt Mullenweg the founder of WordPress stated that “IE6 users account for about 27% of all the visits we saw” in his famous post about IE6 Independence.
So if you would like to know why people use IE6 and get a wide smile on your face…
Go ahead and read his nice post: Why People Still Use IE 6
How many people use IE6
Some people still confused about the percentage of internet users who still using IE6, probably the old articles and blog posts is the reason behind this confusion, this is why I hate blogs when they hide the published date, date is very important element of any article on the internet, because it simply present the credibility of information, so please think 100 times before taking this path and hiding the published on your blog posts.
I took a snap shot from FB Analytics stats today just to show you the truth about IE6 users. If you come across this post any day latter, please compare the stats with the date of publishing this post, I am sure you will find this number lower because IE6 users are going down!
As you see, out of 6,652 visitors last month using IE, only 137 visitors use IE6
Does this affect my blog?
It really depends; every single blog has its own unique finger print of stats, and its own share of web traffic, so you go and check your Google Analytics or any other service you are using, and based on your blog stats you will know.
It’s so clear here in the ie6countdown.com site –man, I love that site a lot- that the percentage of IE users is going down every day, and it’s not a threat anymore.
Watch it live every day at ie6countdown.com and see Internet Explorer 6 falling!
Now, you’ve got it all, so you tell me!
Why I have to develop for a bunch of people setting behind their old computers at work place and visiting my blog?
Why I have to spend extra expensive development hours or my time to make my blog look pretty for them?