Why I won’t use ie6update

IE6 Update is a tempting prospect but, on balance, it’s just not the route I wish to take.

About a month ago, a piece of javascript known as IE6 Update was released by Nick Pettit of Done21. The premise is simple — encourage IE6 users to upgrade with via a mimic of IE’s information bar — but this tool has raised controversy, most notably, perhaps, drawing significant criticism from Paul Boag.

To call the script ‘pure evil’ is, possibly, an overreaction, but, broadly speaking, it raises certain issues that have been discussed many times before, echoing to some extents those early “designed for browser ‘X’” days of the web. I’ll freely admit that, on first hearing of IE6 Update, I was tempted. Microsoft’s near-abandonment of its browser for half of this decade, combined with the policies of some short-sighted corporate IT departments and a lot of terribly-written software have held back the web and wasted an awful lot of money. Every time I work up a design in a certain amount of time, then spend a further, significant amount of time adapting it to work in IE 6, I curse the aforementioned culprits. If anyone out there has managed to commit every one of IE’s misdemeanours, and the multitude of hacks to workaround them, to memory, they’re a far better man than I.

So, I should be champing at the bit to do whatever I can do rid the world of this menace. And, yet, IE6 Update does not seem like the answer. Why? Paul Boag, along with many commenters on the product’s site, have done a good job of identifying the drawbacks of this approach, but here’s my own personal list:

• The act of mimicking IE’s info. bar just seems too disingenuous. I know that’s the whole point, and it might be quite clever taking, as it does, a different spin on the finely-tuned art of ‘phishing’, but I just cannot distinguish it from that former evil enough to justify it. It feels like fraud, and that just doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
• The bar claims “Internet Explorer is missing updates required to view this site”. The number one rule in modern, responsible web design is ‘let everyone view your content, regardless of what browser they happen to be using’. Although the bar isn’t actually preventing IE6 users from viewing the site, the implication is that they can’t. Silently hiding all CSS from IE6 would be preferable, just about, in my opinion.
• There’s a reason people still use IE6. Much of the time, the decision is out of their hands, ruled, as they are, by the IT overlords previously mentioned. Others may simply be unable, or unwilling, to upgrade. Is it really your right to tell them what software they should install, or try to enact a ‘political’ change via your website? Sure, if your site’s all about ‘death to IE’, it might make some sense, but for all other sites, I think it’s better off just staying out of this argument and getting on with your real work.
• Alternatives, such as ‘Pushup’, focus on all (popular) browsers, which is certainly more defensible. IE 6 is, without doubt, the main offender, but upgrading your browser is a good idea, no matter who manufactures it.

So, while it’s undoubtedly a clever trick, and it may well have good intentions, this is yet another weapon I won’t be reaching for.

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‘Five Minute Argument’ is the personal site of Bobby Jack, a London-based Web Developer.

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