It’s time to stop using IE6

Posted on January 16, 2010 by Simon

Ed is right It’s time to stop using IE6.  If you are still using it, and millions are, then it’s time to upgrade to IE8 or Chrome (my current fave) or Firefox.  Please, please, please.

If you know of an organisation still using it, then make sure they get upgraded.

Even if you aren’t using IE6 as your default browser but it’s still there you need to upgrade it to stay secure.

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  • http://markroddis.com/ Mark Roddis

    I am sure a lot of the organisations still using IE6 would love to upgrade however people keep forgetting one slight problem.

    A lot of big corporations have a lot of big (and old) applications and quite a few of these, especially finance, CRM and HR packages for some reason, only run under IE6.

    Yes this is bad. Yes it should not be allowed but considering that it may cost the company over $1million to change that application and retrain all its many thousands of users and considering that the application works fine and does it’s job well, why change it?

    So why throw out a perfectly good application which in turn will cost many thousands of dollars and involves months of retraining just so you can change your browser?

    The argument for change is just too weak.

  • http://markroddis.com/ Mark Roddis

    I am sure a lot of the organisations still using IE6 would love to upgrade however people keep forgetting one slight problem.

    A lot of big corporations have a lot of big (and old) applications and quite a few of these, especially finance, CRM and HR packages for some reason, only run under IE6.

    Yes this is bad. Yes it should not be allowed but considering that it may cost the company over $1million to change that application and retrain all its many thousands of users and considering that the application works fine and does it’s job well, why change it?

    So why throw out a perfectly good application which in turn will cost many thousands of dollars and involves months of retraining just so you can change your browser?

    The argument for change is just too weak.

  • http://markroddis.com Mark Roddis

    I am sure a lot of the organisations still using IE6 would love to upgrade however people keep forgetting one slight problem.

    A lot of big corporations have a lot of big (and old) applications and quite a few of these, especially finance, CRM and HR packages for some reason, only run under IE6.

    Yes this is bad. Yes it should not be allowed but considering that it may cost the company over $1million to change that application and retrain all its many thousands of users and considering that the application works fine and does it’s job well, why change it?

    So why throw out a perfectly good application which in turn will cost many thousands of dollars and involves months of retraining just so you can change your browser?

    The argument for change is just too weak.

  • Simon

    @mark

    I think the argument for change has just been made. Security. Ed’s right, if you’re recommending anything but an upgrade from IE 6 as an IT Pro you’re guilty of negligence (in almost the same way as a doctor not prescribing a specific drug because it’s too expensive).

    Also every single home user needs to upgrade, sure some will be at the end of a slow connection but it’s worth the time. The analogy here is having a lock on your front door that everyone out there know’s can be opened with a toothpick.

  • Simon

    @mark

    I think the argument for change has just been made. Security. Ed’s right, if you’re recommending anything but an upgrade from IE 6 as an IT Pro you’re guilty of negligence (in almost the same way as a doctor not prescribing a specific drug because it’s too expensive).

    Also every single home user needs to upgrade, sure some will be at the end of a slow connection but it’s worth the time. The analogy here is having a lock on your front door that everyone out there know’s can be opened with a toothpick.

  • http://markroddis.com/ Mark Roddis

    You are right in as far as the whole world SHOULD upgrade.

    But in the current climate, a lot of businesses are not in a position to upgrade their core business systems (which as I said could cost huge money). And until these upgrades are made, the business can't move away from IE6.

    So it's not a case of will not move. It's a case of cannot move due to the huge costs involved and unless you work in or have first hand experience of life in a corporate IT environment, this may not make sense.

    This is a very real problem but the argument coming out of the enterprise is:

    > We know IE6 is vulnerable
    > We know the thing to do is upgrade
    > But if we upgrade, we can't access our payroll application which needs IE6
    > So nobody will get paid this month
    > And we don't have $1million to go out and buy, build and migrate to a new payroll application this year
    > And the board don't understand all this stuff so don't get it.

    So by all means lets encourage everybody we know to upgrade their browser. And at the same time we make sure they all understand that an unpatched version of Firefox is just as insecure as anything else but lets not think we can “force” the large enterprise customers to do the same. That's not how the real world works I am afraid.