We Can All Celebrate Now IE6 Is Gone

Internet Explorer, perhaps the most hated words for any developer for the last 5 or more years. Back in the day, Internet Explorer was a fantastic browser that pushed the boundaries further than anyone had before however as the internet evolved it remained in its shell causing heartache and frustration for many developers...and more than one late night trying to iron out those pesky bugs.

So What Happened To The Browser We All Loved?

It wasn't always doom and gloom for Internet Explorer. In 2003 IE accounted for 95% of browser usage. There was no denying that they dominated the market and they had pushed the frontline ever forward but with many things, the success was not to last. Enter Firefox 3...

Due to a slow update period and a better user experience Firefox slowly began to draw in users and ultimately take over the stage as a much faster, more secure and better browser.

So Why Do Developers Hate IE6?

What a lot of people forget is just how old IE6 is; it was released on in August of 2001. In some ways it's amazing that a browser that is over a decade old is still knocking around in the internet age we all live in however Internet Explorer and IE6 in particular had their own unique way of going about things.

Many developers have spent many many hours trying to iron out the seemingly random errors that appeared. Layouts built in CSS would appear beautifully in Firefox, Chrome and Safari only to look like they had been air striked in IE6. “Modern” features would be a closed door for the older browser meaning a poorer experience and even simple things such as transparency would cause problems.

With IE6, it meant that you could spend longer trying to fix the bugs than you did on the original code that worked straight away in modern browsers.

So What Lies Ahead For The Fragile Internet Explorer/Developer Relationship?

It will take time before the pain has been healed from IE6. Many developers are still fragile and broken from solving cross browser (read: internet explorer) compatibility issues. The later versions of IE have definitely been an improvement but it's still a long way to go before the browser is up to scratch with the rest of the web.
The automatic updates that Microsoft announced bring a hope to the community that no longer will they have to wait years between fixes, that soon they will be able to code a website in standards compliant code and have it work for everyone and that with time, the pain will disappear and web development will once again be free to spread its wings.