[to any designers reading this, i realize i'm preaching to the choir. this is an attempt to convince the unaware to take IE6 out behind the shed old yeller style.]

a lot of groups of people have hated Microsoft for some reason or another over the years. there’s the Apple fans that blame them for stealing their structure of an operating system and monopolizing it, the software developers who hold a similar grudge to the Microsoft Office software suite, and most recently, the web designers who are forced to pull their hair out trying to cater to (what i would call “broken”) Internet Explorer 6.

obviously, when you design a web page, you want it to look the same on any browser that the user prefers. for such cross compatibility you need to rely on a set of standards that each browser should adhere to. the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the group that manages such guidelines. Safari, Firefox, and Opera are all examples of browsers that meet these specifications. Internet Explorer does not. thus, my last stage of site development is bending my code backwards so that it looks ok in IE6.

it may shock you to realize that Internet Explorer 6 was released way back in August 2001. because of Microsoft’s firm reign as ruler of the personal computer at the time, IE6 was the main browser on 95% of computers in 2002 and 2003. it wasn’t until after December 2007 that it fell below 50%. usage still hovers around 25%-30%.

this is really frustrating to designers, in many ways. instead of building things the ‘optimal’ way, according to the standards of HTML and CSS (our guidelines), we are often forced to make ‘hacks’ or even forsake features to cater to IE6. open-source powerhouse Firefox and Apple’s Safari are constantly making new strides in performances and new features, yet so many people are still in the dark ages of web browsing.

you may think, “well that sounds like a pain for you and all… but why should i switch? i mean, IE6 ‘works’ and it is what i’m used to.” glad you asked:

reading:

answer me which one is easier (and more pleasant) to read-

it should be clear that the text rendering in the top of the image (Safari, a webkit-based browser) is easier to read than IE6 (bottom). if you have any interest on making things easier on your eyes and brain, don’t use IE6.

security:

not only is IE6 what i would call an “irresponsible” browser when it comes to displaying pages correctly, it also is full of security flaws. these holes gave rise to the spyware craze (and some viruses) that became a nightmare for internet users. most of these vulnerabilities have been treated by now, but all the other major browsers run more secure.

speed:

in case you weren’t hip to current trends, the browser is slowly becoming the next operating system. with recent advancements in javascript and web frameworks (stuff that dictates how sites work), web applications can closer mimic the applications on your computer. services like Google’s Google Docs, Apple’s new MobileMe, and Adobe’s Photoshop Express are the first steps at attempt to replace their desktop counterparts.

but in order to ride the wave of change, you want a browser that will respond closer to the speed of your computer. IE6 compares miserably to the browsers of today. because of such a poor experience compared to what is now possible, some developers (such as 37signals) have already started phasing out support.

so what are your options? i personally use Safari for browsing and daily stuff and use Firefox for some of its excellent web developing free plugins. Opera is another excellent, free, cross-platform browser. a couple other browsers that are worth a look are Camino (a previous favorite on OSX) and the ’social browser’ Flock.

and no, IE7 isn’t an acceptable replacement.