Why is IE6 bad?

Discover the Mission

The premise is simple: Internet Explorer 6 is antiquated, doesn't support key web standards, and should be phased out. This isn't about being anti-Microsoft, it's about making sure that we encourage people to move to modern browsers such as IE8, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. IE6 accounts for up to 20% of web usage, primarily via business users. Clients pressure designers to 'force' sites to work in IE6, and designers, not wanting to lose business, comply, using hacks and workarounds. This wastes time and money. While Microsoft is encouraging companies and developers to move on from IE6, designers need to unite, and we all need to move on.

Criticism

A common criticism of Internet Explorer is of the speed at which fixes are released after discovery of the security problems.

Microsoft attributes the perceived delays to rigorous testing. A posting to the Internet Explorer team blog on August 17, 2004 explained that there are, at minimum, 234 distinct releases of Internet Explorer that Microsoft supports (covering more than two dozen languages, and several different revisions of the operating system and browser level for each language), and that every combination is tested before a patch is released.

Internet Explorer 6 is bad, let's move on.

Which browser for me?

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox Latest Firefox features include tabbed browsing, spell checking, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, private browsing, location-aware browsing (aka "geolocation") based exclusively on a Google service. Functions can be added through add-ons, created by third-party developers, of which there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many of Firefox's users. Download Firefox
Internet Explorer

Microsoft Internet Explorer The latest release is Internet Explorer 8, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later, Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or later, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008, and is planned for inclusion with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, except in Europe. Download Internet Explorer
Chrome

Google Chrome Google Chrome aims to improve security, speed, and stability. There are extensive differences from its peers in Chrome's minimalistic user interface, which is atypical of modern web browsers. Chrome's strength is its application performance and JavaScript processing speed, both of which were independently verified by multiple websites to be the swiftest amongst the major browsers of its time. Download Chrome
Safari

Apple Safari Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. It includes a built-in web feed aggregator and supporting the standards RSS and Atom. Other features include Private Browsing, the ability to archive (using the proprietary .webarchive format) and e-mail web pages, and the ability to search bookmarks. Download Safari
Opera

Opera Opera is a web browser and internet suite developed by the Opera Software company. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying websites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds. Download Opera