Nathan CrauseMusings of a Software Developer

Today, Sept 1 2010, we are still stuck trying to get sites to work with IE6. To think just 2 years ago people were always saying IE6 is dying, and yet here we sit, stuck with the beast.

And you know, I completely understand that companies and individuals who have invested in their IT infrastructure don't want to change it simply for a web browser.

However, here's were I start getting my hackles up: it's these self same people who want their sites to be the latest and greatest Web 2.0, ultra interactive, AJAX-y to the maximum, rich UI, etc., etc., ... but they want it to work in their old infrastructure.

Honestly, that's like expecting your old 1950 Chevy to suddenly morph into a flex-fuel hybrid. Unless you have access to the inner-workings (i.e. source) for ALL the installed user-base, it ain't gonna happen! And since that's not possible ... it ain't gonna happen!

We, as IT people, need to stop bending over backwards for these ignoramuses. The customer is not always right, and here we have a perfect example for that fact (just by the way - whoever came up with that dreck "the customer is always right" was obviously in a very limited field of business - it just doesn't hold water in technology-centric fields). If a custom wants the latest technology on the web, then they need to have the technology to handle it.

End of story.