Is IE9 for you?
Internet Exporer 9, the latest incarnation of the Microsoft web browser, has recently been released in beta form Release Candidate, so it’s meant to be pretty much feature complete.
I’m not going to bore you with another comparison list, as that has already been done to great effect by Arstechnica. But there is something else that recently came to attention in a BOL podcast episode, something that made me think about addoption patterns when Microsoft’s new browser hits the streets in completed form.
Much of the problem I face with browser compatibilities as a developer stem from IE6 and it’s somewhat ridiculously large share of the installed browser market. All web developers and front end developers will tell you how they hate having to write conditional CSS and markup code just for IE6, in effect doubling up on the code they need to generate for each website or webapp project. So the development community can’t wait for it to fade into oblivion… if only.
So it mainly comes down to a couple of key things:
- Some users are living under very large rocks and don’t realise the risks they are taking by sticking to IE6 and ignoring the repeated suggestions to upgrade curtesy of Windows Update and websites with warning curtain screens.
- The majority of IE6 users are stuck with corporate SOE (Standard Operating Environments) due to the company’s custom internal apps and intranets specifically written with DirectX components that are only present in IE6 (for various reasons!).
…letting XP run the new browser is only encouraging them to stick with the old OS version where they are nice and comfy.
So because IE9 won’t run on WindowsXP, which is the version of Windows that most of these corporates with SOEs are running, IE9 won’t help them make the choice to upgrade. Besides, there is still no ActiveX support beyond IE6 anyway (correct me if I’m wrong).
Then the reason for this might be due to Microsoft wanting to get these corporate installations to upgrade from XP to Windows7 (common… for goodness sake), and letting XP run the new browser is only encouraging them to stick with the old OS version where they are nice and comfy.
Either way, in this regard it seams ‘lose lose’.
At least for those users who can and do upgrade every so often, and haven’t been convinced to switch one of the better browsers so far, IE9 looks set to catch them up somewhat to enjoy what the rest of us have been taking for granted for so long: speed, nicer rendering closer to standards compliance, and extensions!
What’s your take on this next phase of the Internet Explorer legacy?
