IE 6 Must Die
Millions of people worldwide still suffer from the debilitating effects of IE 6, a heartbreaking disease that renders the afflicted unable to enjoy most modern web content and increases their chances of contracting a malignant computer virus or exploitation by corrupt spyware and adware programs. It may also cause high blood pressure, heartburn, abdominal cramps, low appetite, drooling, depression, nausea, glue-sniffing addiction, premature balding, and a significant reduction in basic cognitive functions.
It was ten years ago when Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6.0, a browser that at the time competed with… umm… Netscape. It was a pretty good web browser back in the day, and virtually every site created between 2001 and 2006 were designed to work in IE 6. However, IE 6 was soaked with security holes, many of them attributed to Microsoft’s ActiveX plug-in, and in faithful to the long established Microsoft tradition violated all kinds of W3C HTML and CSS standards compliance.
In 2006, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7, which while much better, still balked at W3C standards. They finally got their act together with Internet Explorer 8, released in 2009, and the latest release is Internet Explorer 9, released February 14, 2011.
Of course, there are now many great competitors to Internet Explorer, not the least of which are Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari.
Microsoft has even created their own web site to promote the death of IE 6.0 — the IE 6 Countdown Page — where they officially say good-bye to the old browser and provide resources and information to help you upgrade. eWeek also has an excellent article covering the reasons why IE 6.0 Must Die.
So please, if you are still using IE 6, for the sake of all that is good and decent in this world, switch to a browser that is not a decade old. Personally, I recommend Firefox or Google Chrome, but the choice is ultimately yours.
