Internet Explorer 6 might live forever

In March 2010, Aten Design Group held a "funeral" of Internet Explorer v. 6 (IE6), but a recent analysis shows that the dinosaur of browsers may indeed never die.

Internet Explorer v. 6 was created by Microsoft in 2001 and is the only browser that had a market share above 90% in 21st Century. It was distributed free, as part of the operating systems Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but can also be installed on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, and Windows 2000. Since it is the latest generation of Microsoft's browser more than 5 years, for approximately 600 million new Internet users during this time, the first contact with the Internet is actually contact with Internet Explorer 6.

Statistics show that it still enjoys a significant number of users, and their estimates vary from 12% to 20%. As technology and ideas used in it are now more than 10 years old, its popularity today, creates more problems than benefits. Its security is low, and maintenance of modern web standards - desperate. Due to that there are campaigns for its abandonment and the move to newer versions of Internet Explorer.

The are various reasons that in 2010 IE6, remains one of the most popular web browsers. The first one surprisingly is the reluctance of many managers and system administrators in companies to make any improvements to the software unless it causes problems (the convenience of their employees is not important:)). It turns out that often the software in company computers is only replaced when replacing the hardware, i.e. between 3 and 5 years. On other hand companies that have bought licenses for Windows XP, the most popular operating system of Microsoft, did not make sense or are reluctant to buy a license for newer versions of Windows and even as new hardware is often installed only built-in OS IE6.

Another reason is the poor compatibility of IE6 with modern web standards, but also with the standards in 2006. It appears that during the years when it was the only browser for 95% of Internet users, various companies have invested lots of money in software that is compatible with it and that after the launch of Internet Explorer 7, it appeared that the software was compatible only with it. So to this day many companies are still using IE6, because it is the only browser that works within many intranet systems and older versions of installation programs such as Lotus Notes.

Another reason for the strange popularity is quite interesting. Internet Explorer 6 is a natural barrier for employees in companies to use a lot of modern popular sites like Facebook, CNN, even YouTube because of its poor compatibility with Web 2 standards. Rather than investing in software that blocks certain websites, the companies make this in an easy and inexpensive way, using desperate backwardness of IE6. Simple, ingenious, and first of all - cheap! :)

The corporate customers of Microsoft, who unintentionally utilized a mistake of the business giant to create software that is less compatible with the standards and incorporate it into their most successful product - Windows XP, are the winners of the continuing saga of Internet Explorer 6. In 2007, after the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft announced that in 2010, support for the older version will be discontinued, but this year the support was extended for another four years until 2014. Surely after that date Microsoft will sheet should remember the unpleasant experience, to save costs in the future, and to spare the nerves of thousands of programmers and designers who are footing the bill for problems in IE6.