Dear IE6,
Oh how I hate to write…
I called earlier, but you didn’t pick up the phone. Sorry I know it’s late.
I don’t know where to begin, although I suspect you can already guess what I’m about to say. There comes a time in a man’s life when he asks himself, “should i continue to design for a broken browser?” That time has come for me, and my answer is “no.” My decision is partly due to peer pressure, and mostly deep down I know it’s just not meant to be.
It’s not you, it’s me. You’re still the same girl I met 7 years ago. I guess the excitement of meeting someone so complex and polished at the time blinded me from seeing your true flaws. You’re vulnerable, insecure, and high maintenance. You don’t like to follow rules or play nice with others. I tried to tolerate you as much as I could, really. However a relationship can’t be built on tolerance alone. I can’t blame you for what you are and I have no intention of changing you. After all, you came from a rich family who spoiled you from the day you were born.
I don’t want to dwell on the negatives. The first few years with you were wonderful. You had me at “Download.” Remember that time(2001) when my PM asked me to make the page not refresh when submitting a form? I thought he was insane for asking the impossible. You came to my rescue, whispering “XMLHttpRequest” in my ears. Who would’ve guessed that little hack got so popular…
It’s time to move on, for both you and me. I hope we can remain as friends.
p.s. Feel free to keep everything in the Temp folder, you earned them.
Love,
Jin
Comments 15
08-04-08
I am designing a new site right now, and for some reason I cannot put it into production without at least trying my best to support IE6. Its a shame, but a ton of people still use it, and I can’t bear the thought of having all of those people view my site and think I’m some sort of noob.
I am however, happy having my site at least look ok, but be half crippled feature wise, in IE6.
08-04-08
Bryan, I think we still should make sure your site doesn’t have any show stoppers when viewed in IE6. However, I don’t think it’s needed to make sure your site looks and behaves exactly like it would in other browsers. The effort just isn’t worth it imo.
It’s true a lot people still use IE6, especially in the corporate and government sectors where IE6 is needed to support legacy web apps. As I said, as long as functionality of the site doesn’t break in IE6, i think it’d be good enough.
08-04-08
IE6 is my only friend – we cut ourselves together.
08-05-08
At IBM we call it Internet Exploder.
08-05-08
Unfortunately for most of the “non-aware” PC users out there they are just going to use whatever is shipped on their new Dell or HP. Besides doesn’t it make your job more challenging and exciting trying to find ways to make things work consistently :-P
08-05-08
it’s sad that you two couldn’t work things out, but from what I hear ie6 will never change.
08-05-08
[...] For some reason though, I still feel compelled to support it. Perhaps I should just let go and stop supporting IE6. That decision would be much easier if the last 3 corporations I worked at did not use Windows [...]
08-06-08
[...] In this heartfelt breakup letter, author Jin outlines all the reasons that web developers should drop support of the antiquated [...]
08-07-08
[...] Dear IE6 [...]
08-16-08
That is an awesome article :)
09-26-08
A most touching love letter. ;-)
12-10-08
[...] also another fellow designer over at 8164.org who has written a spoof letter to IE6 – again, a quite amusing stab at the shortfalls of one of the most-used web browsers in the [...]
02-25-09
Internet Exploder is pretty funny…I have always liked Idiot Exploiter ;)
03-18-09
Internet Explorer is ‘monogamous’ in nature with regards to javascript and CSS, you can only write CSS / javascript for IE but it won’t work with the others, talk about a single commitment.
Personally i preffer a slutty browsers that can ‘work’ the same code.
I love you firefox, safari, opera, chrome you make javascript and css look /work beautiful.
04-07-10
[...] Anyway, here is the fun “break up letter” of a sort for IE6 http://www.8164.org/dear-ie6/ [...]