Microsoft: IE6 will never die

In web circles, there is little love left to go around for Internet Explorer 6, a web browser whose security flaws have made it downright notorious. In fact, IE6's awful security situation ris what is largely responsible for the rise of Firefox as an alternative browser, and Microsoft has never quite recovered from the harm IE6 did to its reputation -- even though we're now on IE8.

The problem, though, is that IE6 gained a huge market share in the mid-2000s because it was the original default browser that came with Windows XP. IE7 didn't ship until more than five years later, and many people disliked the aesthetic changes IE7 made to the browsing experience, so they simply never upgraded. The result is that IE6 still has nearly a 30 percent market share today -- eight years after it was originally introduced.

So, if IE6 is so problematic, why not simply force people to upgrade and take it off the market? Surely it can't be simple or cost-effective to keep patching all those security holes. This has been a big blog debate over the last week, as IE6 isn't just a headache for users, it's also a problem for web developers, who often have to support the browser with a custom version of their website. And, considering that nearly a third of web users are using the browser, they pretty much have to do it.

And, for a while, they'll keep having to: Microsoft has responded to its critics by saying that not only is IE6 going to be around for awhile, but that Microsoft really has no choice in the matter. The issue, says Microsoft, isn't a case of an Iowa housewife refusing to install the newer version(s) of IE, it's big enterprises that just don't want to switch. Why? Not only is there minimal upside seen to such a grand upgrade process, many companies have corporate intranet sites that wouldn't look right if users were operating under a different browser. The user training required and technical retooling of these internal websites -- which work just fine under the old browser -- just isn't justified, even though the upgrade to IE7 or IE8 is free. In other words: It ain't broke enough to fix it.

And Microsoft seems to understand that. Officially the company wants you to upgrade. But realistically it says it won't force you, and that it is "committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product." For IE, that probably means 10 years of support, at least until 2011 (though those dates are always in flux). Wow. Keep on truckin', IE!

Via Ars Technica.