Shape 5

As of December 2009 Shape 5 will be discontinuing its support of the IE6 browser.  This browser will be 8 years old this fall and is still in use because web developers continue to bend over backwards trying to "Hack" their sites in order for this browser to display their designs.  Per http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp the percentage of IE6 users in June of 2009 was at 14.9%.  We believe this will continue to drop as it started at a usage rate of 18.5% this past January. Looking at current statistics of IE6 usage we at Shape 5 feel it is time to say goodbye to this 8 year long relationship and move on. 

There are many reasons to move away from IE6, to name a few:

- The browser is 8 years old and within this time period has been succeeded by two new versions
- From the beginning it has been subject to many security vulnerabilities, such as spyware, adware, etc and it still contains vulnerbilities
- Support for modern websites is lacking and holding back developers
- Constant "hacking" must be implemented to get a website to display equally in IE6 as it does in IE 7/8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc
- There are several free supieror browsers to choose from, firefox, safari, chrome, opera, etc 

All this being said, past month we put together a little plugin to help move your users and the rest of the web away from IE6.  If a user is running IE6 they will simply receive the below popup window that prompts them to upgrade their browser.  You can choose to either show a close button or to force the user to upgrade and not view your site.

NOTE: This plugin will not make your site run slower or load any JS/CSS when IE6 is not running.

The following message is displayed for your users to see:

"Due to security risks and a lack of support for web standards this website does not support IE6. Internet Explorer 6 was released in 2001 and it does not display modern web sites properly.  Please upgrade to a newer browser to fully enjoy this site and the rest of the web."

Head on over to the free extensions area to download this plugin.

We hope you all understand our decision of ending IE6 support.

Sincerely,

Hi,

Just what we needed.  However, the download link for the IE 6 plugin goes to the download for the search module.  Please fix so we can download.  Or did I miss something?

Thanks.

I'm not sure why this is happening for you, just checked and its pointing to the plugin. 

Heres the download URL:
http://www.shape5.com/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,96/task,cat_view/gid,85/

That got me there.  Don't know what was going on before.  Glad I stumbled across that search module though.  Thanks!

Hello Shape 5,
Thanks for releasing this to the public. :D

Wish I could say goodbye to IE6.0 . 
Many Schools still stuck on it. 
I hate IE6.0 more than anyone. 

No, Its ok you are not missing anything.



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work from home (http://www.acesynergy.com)

I wish I could say goodbye to IE6 too...gov departments and gov parties still wont allow the upgrade to their offices! And no-one seems to be able to tell me why...

i foresee this as being a serious issue:
- my wife who has a small business put it quite well: "i turn on my laptop which is running whatever browser it is (IE6) and every website i go to works fine, even the mom and pop craft sites let alone amazon.  so why can't my website run on my own laptop?
- i have an additional perspective.  i always look at thing from the target audiences point of view - as companies we don't sell to cevelopers we sell to end-user customers, so all of us need to think about the end-users needs.  given that.  most day to day shopers aren't using firefox (that's for programmers).  so we can remove firefox and even Opera from the piechart.  Actually, a more appropriate pie chart from the target audience perspective would be IE versions and Safari.
With that, we see the most current w3c stats November 2009 being (re-prorated):
IE6 = 13.3/41.5 = 32% (totally agree that the trendline is down, down, down - but not out yet)
IE7 = 13.3/41.5 = 32%
IE8 = 11.1/41.5 = 27%
Safari = 3.8/41.5 = 9%

Chrome? at this time still a novelty/curiosity.  no real traction for end user adoption because the support is so modest.  typical google.

do any others have a small business where they feel this would be an issue?

Absolutely this will continue to be an issue - as long as we web developers pander to outdated, unsafe browsers. 

Yes the Australian Government insists on only allowing IE6 in their offices (interestingly the same government today warned businesses not to use IE at all until security holes are fixed), but if that is a core target market for your client simply use an older template. Shape 5 have some great ones that I use all the time on new sites because they are still good.  Currently developing 3 sites using Eden Rock and another 3 using Sea of Glass.

ps. Having thought more about this issue I am concerned at the commercial reality that there are still so many IE6 users out there.  The latest stats I have found say approximately 20% of users are still using ie6.  Given that the kind of people using ie6 are less likely to visit the techy sites doing these surveys the figure is probably much higher.  I will continue to use older templates for the forseeable future.

I have just checked the stats on all my sites it works out that 21.5% of visitors to my 5 websites use IE6 some even use IE5 so is it really time to let IE6 go?

37% are using OS's older than XP these will not run IE7+

So If I change my main site to a recent Shape5 template I will definately lose visitors as I am not capable of making the changes to the CSS to make it render in IE6

I just got a trial copy of Quickbooks (one of the most popular accounting packages on the market).  Guess what it is packaged with?  IE6! Yes, this is the 2010 version.  As long as major software vendors keep sending this stuff out we are going to have to support it unless we only write websites for programmers.

Hi,

Just what we needed.  However, the download link for the IE 6 plugin goes to the download for the search module.  Please fix so we can download.  Or did I miss something?

Thanks

It used to be that most sites worked well in IE and trobleshooting had to be done for other browsers.  In working with my shape 5 template (Mediaplate) I discovered that the compliant XHTML works with all browsers tested (Latest versions of Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, IE 7 & 8) bu not IE6.  Our solution is going to be to add a joomla extention that advises the surfer to update their browser or use another browser.  There are a number available such as this one.  http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/style-a-design/browsers-a-web-standards/6835 (http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/style-a-design/browsers-a-web-standards/6835)
The drop down menu is difficult enough to configure without having to tweek two times.  It used to be that someone using an unliscenced version of XP couldn?t upgrate to IE7, now with IE 8 microsoft allows you to download IE7 on unliscenced versions.  We don?t have a version of the site for Mosaic why have one for IE6?   

Thanks for the information but I prefer to use chrome.

who doesn?t?

I think IE6 is to old.Thanks for the information.

I have to resond to this comment..."I prefer to use crome"...I am writing this message using the chromium browser, the linux equivilent of chrome....it?s ironic...what I meant to say in this thread is that clearly the websites that I am creating in Shape 5 are not going to support IE 6, done over, goodbye,...how many ways can I say it...that being said...clearly and factually..the truth is I need to support the insupportable on this very same computer that I am creating these sites.... I am running a version of XP so that I can comunicate with my  bank site and sell flights. Why?  The bank requries IE 8 "for security reasons" and ironically I can use IE 6 as insecure and  as it is for flight bookings...my cosolidator... but I need active -x ro use it...they have no problem supporting outdated browsers....my bank demands that I use Internet Explorer and active x...for security reasons if it werent for this I would be MS - free.....exept for my photoshop addiction....  I also have observed a comment on a Linux support site that the majority of support requests  they recieve come from IE browsers using an MS operating system..ironic.....stop supporting Active X stop supporting IE 6, stop supporting ....please.... the issue is that IE 6 is not secure, it does not follow web standards... even Microsoft doesnt  support it...srop supporting it...[peace out]

Found this site recently directly from Microsoft:

http://ie6countdown.com/

I dont understand the reason why the some sites only works with IE. Just like our switches in the office. Only works with IE.  :(