A few years ago, it seemed that web developers had to code their websites in two ways: to be compliant with standards and newer browsers, and for backward compatibility with IE6. Yes, IE6 was still widely used and behaved in its own manner, not following many CSS, JavaScript and HTML standards. This meant web developers had to add many hacks to their code to ensure the web page would show as desired – or as near to desired as possible – on IE6.

But, should we worry about IE6 now?

According to the latest report, the current share of IE6 is 18.11%. It’s much lower than it was, say, 2 years ago, but it is still significant (a bit over 1 in 6 but not quite 1 in 5).

Two sides to the story:

- if you don’t check for IE6 compatibility, you are excluding almost 1 user in 5. We’re not talking about a minority here, it’s a pretty serious figure.

- if you keep making sure websites look OK on IE6, you will not encourage people to upgrade their browser to a more modern one.

The question is, how easy is it for users to upgrade their browser?

- browsers are free so cost isn’t an issue.

- most modern browsers will not install on an old OS, such as Windows 98, and of course, a new Windows OS is not free. However, Linux is free and something like Ubuntu is quite user-friendly.

- it is relatively simple to install a new browser: one click to download, one click to install, a few clicks to accept user license.

- I know the above, you know the above, but what about your grandmother? She might have seen Google Chrome ads but she probably hasn’t taken notice. I certainly wouldn’t expect my father in law to upgrade his browser himself – however, I would gladly do it for him.

So my answer to “should you worry about IE6 compatibility?” is two folds:

- if you know somebody still using IE6, please, upgrade their browser for them.

- do not specifically design for IE6 compatibility because it is outrageous that IT managers up and down the country haven’t done their job properly and upgraded their systems to more modern browsers.

Too harsh? What is your take on this?