Microsoft calls IE6 users ignorant

Most people are not interested in learning the in's and out's of their Dells and WindowsXP. They just want to check their email, fantasy football stats and maybe a little porn. They trust M$ to provide this service without them having to do anything but click icons. So I would say the observation is pretty accurate

 

Why do I still use IE6 on my work computer? Because no one in IT ever authorized me to upgrade it.

 

This is true across much of the NHS here in the UK. I work for an E-learning firm, and making our products work with IE6 isn't a cake walk, but it's necessary.

 

Therefore:

IE6 == "lowest common denominator".

Also,

IT == "if it ain't broke, don't make me fix it".

 

In my line of work, we tend to find people who still use IE6 think of it not as a browser, but as 'The Internet'. By opening IE, they are opening the internet itself like it's a program on their own computer. Ask them to try Firefox, Safari, or any other browser and their response is generally "Oh, I didn't know I could use another program. I thought IE was the internet".

I've even talked to people who didn't know what I meant when I used the word browser. The biggest reason I'm glad Chrome was released was that it introduced those kinds of people to the alternatives to IE. I just hope the trend continues

 

An even better reason to switch to Safari or Firefox.

 

No - it is supposed to keep the company IT working. Not up to date. Just working. In the vast majority of cases, IE6 works for them fine. Their obscure intranet stuff works. Their online room booking works. Their web based sales-team collab works. Consider the NHS with which I work with a lot - they have patient information databases, bronchoscopy case forms to fill out, prescription forms to write. Why change? Why risk stuff breaking just to be 'up to date'.

In terms of reliable, robust IT infrastructure, being 'up to date' is the absolute last possible requirement.

Microsoft is just annoyed that enterprise/corporate doesn't want Vista.

 

Microsoft doesn't want Vista anymore. Windows 7 to the rescue!

 

They are right, users of IE6 are ignorant. Actually, anybody that used IE is ignorant.

 

IE6 yes, IE7 works fine, keep trying.

 

Shame on you, Google, for not releasing one at the same time or within the week. No excuses for that. = agree

On a side note, I've used Chrome and I think it sucks. I don't like it... just imho and all..

 

i just find it ironice MS calls users that use its own software ignorant just because its not the latest version lol

i agree with es, youre ignorant if you use IE period

 

You misunderstood me. I will repeat it: "If it ain't broke, don't make me fix it".

I am IT. I have several buildings and a few hundred users to support. 90% of those users are the type who call and say things like "MY internet isn't working"...

IE6 really is the lowest common denominator. Outsourced web developers still use it to verify functionality. On my intranet, where I have a mix of Apache servers and IIS servers, PHP and ASP, IE works for all.

Oh, and all my users have IE7. We've made it at least that far.

And of the 10% of my users who are not clueless? I allow them to install FF, which is what we in IT use. It works just fine for most things... just not OWA, but that's another story.

 

Up until recently I used IE all the time on my XP system.

Why? It works. I don't want my browser to do fancy things. I want something that works. And work it did - I've never had a virus on my own Windows system. I even removed AVG so I'm flying around the internet naked but from a scan every so often I'm clean.

Only reason I went to Firefox was because Safari XP takes a while to load after its been used for a while (at least for me), and because I didn't like the way the address bar dropdown worked.

 

Although I use Firefox, I thought that IE 6 was one of the best browsers I'd ever used. VERY fast, and simple.

 

I'm lucky that my job standardized IE7 rather quickly. I have IE8 on my XP machine and it's an even better successor.

 

There was this one girl I talked to once. She said sorry about her constantly logging of AIM because her internet kept on failing. I asked what kind of internet she had and she told me "dell". It made me laugh so ***** hard.