Elliot Swan

Welcome to my live redesign. Codename, Tumbl3. Grab the feed.

Monday (07/25/05)

IE 7…A requirement? 11:41 am

Once IE7 comes out soon, I wonder if older versions of IE will stay in use? What if we (as designers and developers), made IE7, FireFox, Opera, Safari, or another newer browser a requirement?

All the older versions of IE came with Windows, and in order to get a newer version you had to get a new OS. But IE7 will be downloadable, and thus much easier for people to upgrade. There’s also FireFox of course, which is also downloadable. Sites now require Flash, so why not require a newer browser?

Of course, this would only work if there was a mass boycott of older browsers (ie developers refuse to code for them), and I doubt that would ever happen.

  • Karpa-Diem (Jake Garrison) July 25th, 2005 @ 12:22 pm (#)

    First off, sorry for cutting you off today on AIM. I was working on a reply and our cable internet went down.

    Not all versions of IE required a new operating system. In fact I heard that the opposite is true. IE7 will require you to have WinXP sp2 or higher. There should be plenty of people that will have to upgrade.

    I could be wrong but most of the other IE versions supported a larger range of Windows versions, 9x, NT, XP.

    Once again, this could be outdated info that no longer applies to anything.

    Oh and about wp-cron, I don’t think there are any settings for the main plug-in, but there are for the other complementary plug-ins.

  • Jonathan July 25th, 2005 @ 3:07 pm (#)

    Apparently, 50% or so of Windows boxes are still running 2000. That’s going to be fun for the Network Administrators. May be a nice push for Longhorn (when it finally arrives).

    “mass boycott of older browsers” … hmm, I would very much like to see this happen for IE for Mac :)

  • Elliot Swan July 25th, 2005 @ 10:09 pm (#)

    Not all versions of IE required a new operating system. In fact I heard that the opposite is true. IE7 will require you to have WinXP sp2 or higher. There should be plenty of people that will have to upgrade.

    Bummer.

    I could be wrong but most of the other IE versions supported a larger range of Windows versions, 9x, NT, XP.

    Hmm…But can you download other versions of IE? Or do they only come with the OS?

    “mass boycott of older browsers” … hmm, I would very much like to see this happen for IE for Mac :)

    Is Mac IE really used much? I really can’t imagine many people buying a Mac then using IE… The W3 browser stats don’t even mention it. Though if you add all of the persentages for July on that chart 2.8% is missing.

  • Jonathan July 26th, 2005 @ 1:07 am (#)

    “Is Mac IE really used much?” - you have to remember that for the first few years of OS X’s existence the operating system not only shipped with IE, but it used it as the default browser. Safari wasn’t around back then and the other competition really wasn’t that stiff. Today, it’s a completely different story. With Safari 2, Firefox, up-n-coming Camino - not to mention Opera and the rest - the end is at last in site for IE,but still, it’s out there. Microsoft isn’t supporting it any more so it’s a lame product. It will however, take a while to educate the masses.

  • ChristianGeek July 26th, 2005 @ 3:38 am (#)

    IE 6 only worked on 2000 and up, I have heard that IE 7 will only support XP and the new Vista.
    A lot of companys still use 2000, I think even the goverment might use 2000 in some places, so a boycott would basiclly force a lot of people to get FireFox or Opera because these run on 98 and up sothis actually probably help FF more than you realize.

    My 2 cents

  • Elliot Swan July 26th, 2005 @ 5:19 pm (#)

    “Is Mac IE really used much?” - you have to remember that for the first few years of OS X’s existence the operating system not only shipped with IE, but it used it as the default browser. Safari wasn’t around back then and the other competition really wasn’t that stiff.

    Good point. I tried to find some statistics to see if I could get an estimate as to how much it’s used, but I couldn’t find any, though I’m pretty sure the numbers must be narrowing down.

    Today, it’s a completely different story. With Safari 2, Firefox, up-n-coming Camino - not to mention Opera and the rest - the end is at last in site for IE,but still, it’s out there. Microsoft isn’t supporting it any more so it’s a lame product. It will however, take a while to educate the masses.

    Unfortunately, I’m not sure IE is at an end. With IE7 right around the corner and Vista after that, I think Microsoft is getting another chance. If they take it and make a good browser, I have no problem with that. If, however, we one like their others, well….I hope people realize it.

    IE 6 only worked on 2000 and up, I have heard that IE 7 will only support XP and the new Vista.
    A lot of companys still use 2000, I think even the goverment might use 2000 in some places, so a boycott would basiclly force a lot of people to get FireFox or Opera because these run on 98 and up sothis actually probably help FF more than you realize.

    My 2 cents

    Hmm….I guess I didn’t realize it would only run on XP. Too bad, really. I don’t think as many people are willing to completely switch browsers as they would be if it still was IE (just a different version).

  • Jonathan July 27th, 2005 @ 1:26 am (#)

    “Unfortunately, I’m not sure IE is at an end. With IE7 right around the corner and Vista after that, I think Microsoft is getting another chance. If they take it and make a good browser, I have no problem with that. If, however, we one like their others, well….I hope people realize it.”

Say Something.





I'm a nice guy, so I'll let you use basic XHTML such as <a>, <strong>, <em>, <blockquote>, and <code>. If you're trying to share some code with us, just make sure to run it through Postable first.

Write your comment