Day in and day out, I fight against the FAIL that is Internet Explorer. These days, Version 7 pretty much gets the job done with a little cajoling and the occasional punch in the face, but Version 6 is the bane of my existence. On a whim, I bought DestroyIE.com the other day in hopes of possibly using it for a future project (which will probably never see the light of day). That’s how much I hate it.
Over the weekend, I whipped together a little conditional loop and some styles to figure out of someone visiting my site is running Version 6. If they are, they get this puppy:
Sorry to all 7% of my visitors running that browser, but I simply don’t have the time or the patience to encourage you to continuing using it.
For those lucky enough to not have it installed on their computers (I have to because of my job), this is what you are missing:
Your browser (Internet Explorer 6) is not compatible with the Internet or this site. Please upgrade. It’s fast, free, and will make your computer safer.
I recommend Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
Thanks for helping to make the net a better place.
Now, If only I could get away with doing this on one of the work sites. Except I would add on an extra
* {display:none} #ie-sucks, #ie-sucks p {display:block;} #ie-sucks a {display:inline}.
Just kidding, Jay : )
But seriously. Until IE6 ceases to be a major percentage of the online community, we have to code for it. At work, I make sure everyone gets an equal experience on the internet to the best of my ability. But off the clock, I get to have a little more fun.
Hey Eli,
I agree… it is the bane of all designer/developers out there… I’ve gotten so used to working around it and designing with it in mind, that I hardly have too much trouble with IE 6 rendering nowadays - however the main thing that burns my soul is the lack of transparency in pngs… This is the #1 reason to me, for losing IE off the face of the earth. It is/has been limiting the creativity and advancement of the web for years now. It’s time to just move forward and drag all of the idiots still using it, into the year 2000!
I used to display messages such as yourself for users - I’ve even gotten it on a few client sites here and there. I do like to use something like that when I am using transparent pngs… that way the IE6 users know that something is wrong on their end and not on my end. It seems easier to explain about a certain feature that is not supported in their browser rather than just telling them that their browser sucks. They seem more inclined to believe it rather than just thinking that it is a web developer not capable of designing cross-platorm.
It also works as a CYA type of thing. Other than being able to do that, I either have to rethink the design around the use of transparency or I’ve begun using jquery to fix the problem. Not always the smallest, easiest solution, but more and more interactivity on sites is being asked of me, so if jquery is already there for that, it’s allowing me to expand the scope of sites both feature and design wise - which is cool.
I actually registered the domain surfbetter.org way back in the day, because I had intentions of doing something similar to you - in my case a grassroots campaign to get people to use something better than IE. One of those projects you get really excited about for a day, and then you’ve got to pay the bills and it sort of slides down the schedule into oblivion. - Yep, I can relate… heh
I think it’s one of those Catch-22 things.
If we design/develop with IE6 in mind, people will have no incentive to upgrade to IE7 or switch to a different browser. Fact of the matter is, many people aren’t that computer savvy, and the process of trying something new isn’t worth it if they’re already getting 90% of the ‘proper’ web experience.
On the other hand, if we design/develop with the attitude of giving IE6 the middle finger, then some of these IE6 users will think their technological requirements are being disregarded. Maybe they’ll upgrade their browsers, maybe they won’t. In this case, these users probably won’t see a browser upgrade until they purchase a new computer.
I take comfort in believing that the IE6 user base will dwindle to inconsequential numbers within the next three years, when the systems that originally came with it as an OEM installation will be hitting five years of age and ripe for replacement.
That said, even IE7 hurts my feelings on occasion.
I also despise IE6 with a passion. I’m a freelancer at an agency where my main contact refuses to accept that after 7 years of deplorable existance IE6 has had it’s day and rather than educating his end client the benefits of upgrading to any of the more compliant free options there are out there, I have to spend hours pandering to his demands and reworking perfectly well developed sites.
I keep my job, but lose my sanity and all faith in his ability to communicate with clients to provide a more usable way of viewing the internet.
I work on the philosophy that I develop current web sites for current browsers. For people that want the latest techniques and functions in their sites, it’s pathetic that they all continue to use IE6 as their preferred browser.
It’s ironic that the clients that consistently struggle to do the simplest things like use a word processor seem to know whats possible when it comes to building web sites - as they’ve ’seen it somewhere’ but never are prepared to kit them selves appropriately to have that ability themselves. Guess who gets the unfounded grief for such ignorance?
Hmmm.
IE6. It’s dead. Bury it. Now.
If I had any clout on the internet whatsoever, I’d try to organize a “destroy IE day” (hence the domain), where everyone participating would include a JS file that detected IE6, and refused to display any content other than a message like the one above. Compassionate people could add a little check box saying “I understand my browser sucks, there’s nothing I can do about it” which would let them get to the content.
Obviously this wouldn’t have much effect unless you got some big sites to participate, but can you IMAGINE the impact if people using that browser simply couldn’t use the internet? Can you imagine how much more we could do with CSS and HTML if we didn’t have to cripple and hack for IE?
I guess a guy can dream.