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Keep in mind that many old-IE users are there because their corporate/gov entity requires it. Our entire univeristy health/hospital complex, for example, was on IE6 until...last year, maybe?... because they had several critical pieces of software written as active-x components that only ran in IE6. Which, sure, you can say that's dumb (because it is), but at the same time we couldn't have a setup that made it hard for the doctors and researchers use the library. On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Michael Schofield <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I'm having a change of heart. > > It is kind of sacrilegious, especially if you-like me-evangelize > mobile-first, progressively enhanced web design, to throw alerts when > users hit your site using IE7 / IE8 that encourage upgrading or changing > browsers. Especially in libraries which are legally and morally mandated to > be the pinnacle of accessibility, your website should - er, ideally - be > functional in every browser. That's certainly what I say when I give a talk. > > But you know what? I'm kind of starting to not care. I understand that > patrons blah blah might not blah blah have access to anything but IE7 or > IE8 - but, you know, if they're on anything other than Windows 95 that > isn't true. > > > * Using Old IE makes you REALLY vulnerable to malicious software. > > * Spriting IEs that don't support gradients, background size, CSS > shapes, etc. and spinning-up IE friendly stylesheets (which, admittedly, is > REALLY easy to do with Modernizr and SASS) can be a time-sink, which I am > starting to think is more of a disservice to the tax- and tuition-payers > that pad my wallet. > > I ensure that web services are 100% functional for deprecated browsers, > and there is lingering pressure-especially from the public wing of our > institution (which I totally understand and, in the past, sympathized with) > to present identical experiences across browsers. But you know what I did > today? I sinned. From our global script, if modernizr detects that the > browser is lt-ie9, it appends just below the navbar a subtle notice: "Did > you know that your version of Internet Explorer is several years old? Why > not give Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari a try?"* > > In most circles this is considered the most heinous practice. But, you > know, I can no longer passively stand by and see IE8 rank above the others > when I give the analytics report to our web committee. Nope. The first step > in this process was dropping all support for IE7 / Compatibility Mode a few > months ago. Now that Google, jQuery, and others will soon drop support for > IE8 - its time to politely join-in and make luddite patrons aware. IMHO, > anyway. > > Already, old IE users get the raw end of the bargain because just viewing > our website makes several additional server requests to pull additional CSS > and JS bloat, not to mention all the images graphics they don't support. > Thankfully, IE8 is cool with icon fonts, otherwise I'd be weeping at my > desk. > > Now, why haven't I extended this behavior to browsers with limited support > for, say, css gradients? That's trickier. A user might have the latest HTC > phone but opt to surf in Opera Mini. There are too many variables and too > many webkits (etc.). With old IE you can infer that a.) the user has a lap- > or desktop, and [more importantly] b.) that old IE will never be a phone. > > Anyway, > > This is a really small-potatoes rant / action, but in a culture of all > accessibility / never pressuring the user / whatever, it feels momentous. I > kind of feel stupid getting all high and mighty about it. What do you think? > > Michael | Front End Librarian | www.ns4lib.com > > * Why, you may ask, did I not suggest IE9? Well, IE9 isn't exactly the > experience we'd prefer them to have, but also according to our analytics > the huge majority of old IE users are on Windows XP - where 9 isn't an > option anyway. Eventually, down the road, we'll encourage IE9ers to upgrade > too (once things like flexbox become standard), and at least they should > have the option to try IE10. > -- Bill Dueber Library Systems Programmer University of Michigan Library