Outphasing Testing / Development for IE6

[Prashant]

I think its not the first time or last time someone is going to start this topic. But as a Designer/Developer i can't help myself from raising this again.. should we stop developing / testing for ie6? Its a serious question considering you have ie7, ie8 and ie9 beta released. Every time you thought you had a module or design working you have to face the horror of seeing it messed up in IE6. Another side is there are many cool css functionality and tricks you could have applied but left it alone fearing ie6. So how does that help you? the company or the client?. The man hours lost in ie6 bug fixing alone if statistically put across by companies across the globe would surely be alarming and if you weigh it in $$$ i think this post can be concluded by two words"BAN IE6".

Here's a recent statistic and please note that lets say out of 100% global users 10% use IE6 it's a major chunk but seriously will all that 10% be viewing your site? what happens when ie6 is gone an other sites outshines yours in terms of functionality because you dint adapt them for fear or ie6? When flash came about users didn't have any other option but to download and install flash player to view it. considering that its has 90% share in all media displayed online says that it was definitely adopted without much fuss. There are umpteen number of ways you can put across a message to the user stating he is using an outdated IE i think as a responsible designer,developer or company you should be doing this and addressing the global cause. Not only will you speed up phasing out ie6 you will help users to upgrade to new ie and help the online community. It also helps you be enabling you to make use of latest advancements in CSS & Javascript which will enhance your services to the end user and win you more credit. And at the end of the day you are on top of your game. If clients wants their site compatible for ie6 they should definitely pay us $$$ for our effort am sure anything vintage is costly... try asking to service a vintage automobile and keep it road ready at least that you can sell and recover the money. With ie6 you will have to spend more money to adapt to latest standards sheeesh

Shall we take a stand and stop debugging for IE6?. So who echos my comments?

[finoy]

I love the plugin from Google Code. That apart from displaying a warning message informing the user to upgrade the browser, it displays a list of alternatives available. The webpage is still visible behind a transparent background, but access to it is prevented. The idea is to force users to upgrade from IE6 and avoid the website from a bad reputation that website is not rendering correctly in IE6.The script is completely translatable in any language, very easy to set-up

[jay]

Indeed a good news for those who are against IE6 - . Now who's next - Twitter or Big G ?