IE8: Does this mean IE6 will die?

With the release of IE8 many people are predicting that IE6 will not be used anymore. If this is true then web developers can drop support for IE6. However before one starts to believe this rushed assumption one must clearly understand why people are still using IE6. To better understand I will give a real example of why IE6 is still used.

I am currently working with a betting company which uses a very sophisticated and complex web application back end. This back end is extremely important for the company and without it the main web site where people make their bets will not function. Due to the importance of this tool during the development stage the developers gave more importance to the business logic behind it and therefore 4 years ago they did all their testing on one browser – IE6. Since this tool is used internally they could easily force the employees to use IE6.

This year management decided that a new back end should be developed and of course it will not run on IE6. However the point is that this scenario proves that people are still using IE6.

IE6 is still being used by 20% of the internet users. In fact the last time I checked on google analytics 20% of the traffic generated on our web site comes from IE6. So please be patient and continue supporting IE6 because it is still on the run.