June 8, 2009
milestone weekend
This weekend, for the first time, IE 8 usage surpassed IE 6 usage in the Net Applications usage share daily trend reports.
Now, IE 6 always drops off dramatically during the weekends while most other browsers are fairly stable from weekdays to weekends, so this isn't the "real" milestone but we're probably only about a week away from the average weekly share of IE 8 beating the average weekly share of IE 6.
IE 6's share has been falling at a pretty consistent rate for more than a year now and while I don't think IE 8 has had any appreciable impact on that rate of falling, it's still nice to know that within a very short time, it will be more critical to general Web development to test in IE 8 than in IE 6 and that's good news.
This data is already a couple of weeks old, but you can definitely see the historical trends. IE 6's slide continues. IE 8 is taking share from IE 7 pretty much the same way IE 7 cannibalized IE 6 two and a half years ago.
Good times!
reactions, thoughts, comments, etc.
Posted by: Ken Saunders | June 8, 2009 9:43 PM
In spite of that, I still have to code for IE6 at work... and only for IE6, because it's for internal applications, and IE6 is the default browser on all computers here, and you're not allowed to upgrade or use another one. That said, I have Firefox Portable on my USB key.
Posted by: Stifu | June 9, 2009 12:05 AM
As I understand it, Microsoft still supports IE6 largely because of product lifecycle commitments and the fact that IE is bundled with the operating system. Basically, whatever shipped with the oldest currently supported version of Windows (including service packs) will continue to get support. (This means IE 5.0 still gets security fixes, but IE 5.5 does not.)
So when Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 goes (currently scheduled for July 2010), IE6 goes.
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps/#Internet_Explorer
Posted by: Kelson | June 9, 2009 10:14 AM
@kelson ie6 wont go until windows xp ends its support
which is july in 2014
Posted by: gabe | June 9, 2009 10:59 AM
@gabe - crud, I missed that one. Four more years...
I could have sworn WinXP SP3 included IE7, but I must be misremembering.
Posted by: Kelson | June 9, 2009 11:32 AM
Bonjour.
I work in a helpdesk service and every time i see IE6 on a machine, I force Windows updates. Most of our clients don't know alternative browsers (and don't know what is a browser, they just use "google").
So a lot of small business with 1 to 5 PC can still run IE6 because automatic updates do not work.
Posted by: Smat | June 11, 2009 8:38 AM
Asa, I just don't understand some things. If Microsoft truly wants its browser to be competitive then why do they still support IE6 at all? Or do they even care if its competitive because they still have that instant user base through Windows? Was IE7 released just as an attempt to shut everyone up about them abandoning their browser? And is IE8 a now legitimate effort to compete with Firefox?
They still don't give a shit about their consumers and their safety and what is best for the Internet. If they did, then they would have pushed for greater adoption of IE7 and now IE8. When visiting MSN.com in Firefox, all that I see is a single text link amongst the mess of links to "Download IE8". That's it. Visit MSN.com in IE8 and you'll see the same text link in the same place and a bit further down the page there is an 88x31 IE8 promo (and I was using IE8) and that's it yet you'll see huge banners and ads across the Internet for IE8 on every Firefox related page that Google hasn't snatched up to display an ad for Chrome on. Shouldn't MS start in its own back yard? Chances of them getting their own consumers to use IE8 are a lot better and more realistic than thinking that Firefox users will flock to IE8 in droves. It's just not going to happen.
I've heard the argument about the huge cost that companies and organizations would incur if they upgraded to a newer browser, but they way that I see it and because the cost of everything rises all of the time, the longer they wait, the more they'll have to fork over.
I just don't get it. What the hell is going on?