As web designers, we’re constantly kept awake at night fighting crime in the war of browser compatibility issues, hoping only to build websites that deliver consistent experiences to all users regardless of their browser of choice.
IE vs. Firefox…again
Microsoft did us all a favour with the release of IE7 not too long ago, marginalizing the differences in how it displays websites between it and its next leading competitor Firefox.
But despite this and all the new features and innovations that IE7 brings to users, there still remains a significant portion of internet users who haven’t been incented enough to make the leap from IE6 to IE7. This essentially has meant that the designers who choose to make accomodations for outdated users must design websites for 3 very different browsers. Until now, that is.
Farewell IE6
It is with great sadness but greater joy that I share the news that IE6 will finally be put to rest come this February. According to InfoWorld, Microsoft has finally given the thumbs up to an autoupdate of IE6 to IE7 which is set to occur on February 12. IF you can read german language you certainly will heard of heise.de - the platform and number1 page for nerds and all kind of technic lovers.
Whole new light
This update will roll-out and a good 30% of the internet population will see many websites in a whole new light and in the way they were truly designed to be seen (despite our greatest efforts, many websites are still not fully cross-browser compatible). I took 30% because most of the stats i´ve seen and books i read take this as average. Following my stats IE6 takes only 17%, good isn´t it?
A good time to be a designer
For us designers, it means the old tester computer that still runs IE6 may finally be unplugged. Coincidentally, its power supply died last week.
You can read the full article on InfoWorld here. For the truly stubborn, the article also mentions ways to avoid the autoupdate.
This is great news for the community, and it comes shortly after the announcement of another exciting IE milestone. It’s definitely a good time to be a web designer.
