Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is a particular version of of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser which has caused web developers headaches for the past decade. Despite this version of the software being over 10 years old – and actually two versions out of date following the launch of 7 and 8 – IE6 remained one of the most popular web browsers until very recently.

The latest statistics indicate that users of the troublesome browser are finally on the decline, with people upgrading to Windows Vista and/or Windows 7 – both supplied with newer, more capable web browsers. The growth of other browsers such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox has also had an impact on IE6.

Based on an analysis of 15 billion page views in May 2010, StatCounter’s numbers indicate that IE6 usage in the U.S. has fallen to as low as 4.7% from 11.5% in the last 12 months.

As far as other web browsers go, IE8 holds 30.49% market share in the U.S., followed by Firefox 3.6 with 19.85% and IE7 with 16.64% market share.

Recent developments in JavaScript Libraries such as jQuery have enabled designers and developers to achieve many things in “good clean code” that used to reserved for those building in Flash, however there was still a place for Flash – the most of common being video content. Just about every video service, including YouTube, provides video embedding via the use of Flash. Or did…

YouTube recently announced it’s decision to experiment with HTML 5 Video Embedding, an alarming sign for Adobe and Flash. HTML 5 video embedding (when more widely supported) will enable developers to embed video into a web-page without the need for Flash.

Furthermore, Adobe have faced additional criticism and pressure from Apple Supremo, Steve Jobs. Apple have refused to support Flash on the iPhone since it’s launch more than two years ago – and an alleged recent outburst at the Wall Street Journal goes some way to explaining why: Steve Jobs “called Flash a ‘CPU hog,’ a source of ’security holes’ and a dying technology. ‘We don’t spend a lot of energy on old technology,’ Jobs said.”

While Jobs is renowned for being an innovator, might he be looking a bit too far forward this time?

HTML5, is (currently) plagued with issues, not least the fact that most browsers do not have HTML5 support (the only browsers that can play Youtube’s HTML5 demo videos are Google Chrome, Apple Safari 4 and Internet Explorer 8 (with Google Frame). And even with the aforementioned browsers, Youtube’s video plays like a slide show.

In addition, Flash is so widespread that any change away from the standard will take years. Even if Apple, YouTube and (probably) Google throw their significant, collective weight behind the move, it will still be nigh on impossible to make the move any time soon.

Mac or PC?
A debate that could quite easily take up several blog posts itself! The short answer is quite simply – both. We primarily use Macs, however our programmers prefer PCs. We actually have a lone Windows laptop whose only purpose is for testing web-pages on Internet Explorer (for more on this please see my post on IE6) and e-mail marketing on Outlook.

Personally, I moved to Mac 7 or 8 years ago and I wouldn’t go back to using PC’s (for anything other than testing!)

Applications

Above is my Mac’s Dock – these are the applications I use on a daily basis. From left to right;

Finder
Finder is the file browser on the Mac – I personally don’t have any problems with the way it works – so I stick to it!

Mail
Apple Mail is the default e-mail application for the Mac and I personally prefer it over the alternatives. I find the Smart folders especially useful for filtering through e-mail relating to different projects.

Address Book
Another Apple product. I like how Address book seamlessly integrates with Mail and iCal – there are also extensions for syncing with Google Contacts – which are very useful for working remotely. Finally, integration with my iPhone is very important!

iCal
I use iCal to schedule meetings. We operate a shared calendar which is synced across the office which is particularly useful.

Adium
Adium is my personal messaging application of choice. It combines multiple IM’s such as GoogleTalk, MSN, Yahoo, AIM etc. Plus the icon looks pretty cool!

Safari
Safari is currently my ‘personal’ browser of choice – It’s so quick and elegant compared to some of the alternatives and it is become more and more powerful to develop web pages, however Firefox is still better…

Firefox
Firefox is my daily ‘development’ browser. I’d be stuck without some of the plugins – especially Web Developer and Firebug. I also use Foxmarks, which syncs my bookmarks between Safari and Firefox.

Tweetie
Tweetie is my preferred Twitter Client – I use both the desktop and iPhone client.

Spotify
Only in the last 6 months have I discovered Spotify – until recently you would have found my iTunes icon here! Spotify is fantastic (even with the ads) and their music catalgoue is growing all the time.

OpenOffice
I’ve found myself using OpenOffice far more than Word these days. The majority of our site plans, quotations and technical specs are written in OpenOffice.

OmniGraffle
I use OmniGraffle to produce great-looking site maps. Site maps are especially key when planning complex web applications and the OmniGraffle interface is great to use.

Preview
When I think about it, I use Preview a hell of a lot! Any images I quickly need to look at or crop, any PDFs etc. – all get dropped into Preview.

Fireworks
Others will disagree… but I still prefer Fireworks as a graphics application for web graphics. I am still running MX2004 here but it still does a great job!

Photoshop
While I prefer Fireworks, the majority of design work at Pixel Vector is done in Photoshop. My job regularly involves taking photoshop layouts and coding these up in CSS and HTML.

TextWrangler
About a year ago I stopped using Dreamweaver for buidling web-pages & CSS and moved to TextWrangler – a pretty basic text editor. I find that coding in this environment is much more flexible and a lot quicker!

MAMP
MAMP is used for testing dynamic websites locally.

TextEdit
I leave TextEdit here in case I need to make any quick notes.

Transmit
Transmit is my preferred FTP client for the Mac.

HP Scan Pro
Used for scanning!!!

Digital ColourMeter
A nice little app. hidden in the Utilties folder of your Mac – I use this to source colour hex codes, usually from mock ups or existing web pages.

Terminal
Used for accessing certain servers.

Browsers (Stack)
This stack includes links to all the browsers I test on for Mac; Camino, Fennec, Firefox, Flock, Fluid, Chrome, iPhoney, Navigator, Opera, Safari, SeaMonkey, Shiira, Stainless and Sunrise.

Applications (Stack)
A link to all the apps on my Mac.

On an average project we spend a large percentage of our time testing (and bug fixing) on many web browsers on various platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux) to ensure every visitor has the same experience on our websites – regardless of their computer or web browser. By far the most problematic web browser for web developers is without doubt, Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6 (IE6).

Most web developers will tell you – the problems with IE6 begin with the lack development that Microsoft originally put into to the application. Simple HTML Code and CSS that works perfectly on every other web browser, quite often, produces unexpected results in IE6 – and thus, over the years, a plethora of standards–friendly hacks and ‘work–arounds’ have been produced by the web development community.

Bugs aside, the biggest challenge facing every web developer has been the sheer popularity of IE6. When Microsoft released Windows XP, it was released with IE6 pre–installed and thus to many users Internet Explorer 6 is ‘the internet’ on their machines. Due to the huge market share Windows has, it obvious why IE6 was, until recently, by far the most popular web browser.

Why are people still using IE6?
Amazingly, Internet Explorer 6 was first released in 1999 – ten years ago! In that time Microsoft has updated Windows several times. So why are so many web users still using a piece of software that, aside from being unreliable, unsecured and buggy at best – is ten years behind other web browsers?

The short answer is – because these users don’t know any different! Over the years Microsoft has in fact updated Internet Explorer with version 7. Indeed, version 8 is fast upon us (and can be downloaded as a BETA version) – however these remain ‘unknown’ to many Windows users due to it not being a ‘compulsory’ update. Unless they have upgraded from XP to Vista, it is highly unlikely that your average Windows user will have manually sought after the upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

A step in the right direction
Since Internet Explorer 8 was announced and launched as a BETA Version download earlier this year – there has been a sharp rise in the number of web sites (and web developers) discontinuing support for IE6 – including Internet ‘heavyweights’ such as Facebook.

After 10 years – during which we’ve seen a rise in the popularity of ‘alternative’ web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Opera, and the increase in popularity of Apple Mac’s (complete with their own browser, Safari) has soared, not to mention to increase in the number of users finally upgrading to IE7 and 8. It seems IE6 use is finally on the decline. Web developers rejoice everywhere! Web technology has moved on a great deal in the last decade – and IE6 has in many ways, been left behind.

To offer IE6 support or not?
In software development, it is the norm to support the 2 latest versions of an application – in the case of Internet Explorer this will soon be 7 and 8. As I write this article, IE6 is actively being ‘phased out’ by web developers in preparation for IE8’s full launch – many sites are displaying messages aimed at IE6 users (informing them to upgrade for a better web browsing experience). Microsoft themselves are now more actively informing users to upgrade to newer versions of Internet Explorer 6. And finally, some newer web developments are preventing IE6 users from accessing their developments altogether.

As of March this year, statistics produced by W3Schools indicate that Internet Explorer 6 users now account for just 17% of all web traffic. A huge decrease, however this is still a statistic too large to ignore in my opinion. Almost 20% of the average website’s visitors are still using IE6 which could equate to 20% of potential sales…

As we progress further into 2009, it’s likely we will see more ‘big name’ websites discontinuing support for IE6 as more and more users upgrade. However until that 17% figure decreases further, I will continue to recommend to our clients that their projects offer a degree of accommodation to IE6 users, at least until IE8 is fully launched.

So, for the foreseeable future at least, it’s “happy IE6 bug fixing”!

Are you an IE6 User?
If you’re using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, click on the Help menu at the top of your screen, locate the ‘About Internet Explorer’ option. This dialogue will tell you your version of Internet Explorer.

If you are using IE6, I strongly recommend you update your web browser to one of those listed below. As outlined above, for the immediate future IE6 is still supported, but this support is being ‘phased out’. It is likely you will start to experience web browsing difficulties as more sites discontinue IE6 support.

Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Internet Explorer – Homepage
Google Chrome
Apple Safari
Opera