Internet Explorer 6 is Dead–They Had a Funeral and Everything…
It’s true! The scourge of all web developers has died and gone to the fiery furnace where it belongs. If you are using IE6, be aware that you are floating down river on the bones of a dead browser.
IE6 has caused so many headaches for me over the years that about a year ago I simply quit worrying whether or not my blog loaded in it or not. If you are using IE6, you are definitely not seeing this blog as it was meant to be viewed. I have no idea what you’re seeing — like I said — I haven’t tested for IE6 in a long time.
And, it’s not only me, there are plenty of others that gave up on it, including the biggest dog of them all: Google. They phased out IE6 support on March 1st for Google Docs, Google Sites and announced YouTube will discontinue support on March 13th.
Of course, Microsoft, the creator of this horrid monster, hasn’t exactly killed it off yet; they’re keeping it on life support until officially pronouncing it dead in May of 2014 when they will stop support completely.
As a result of Microsoft’s slow hand to pull-the-plug, Ryan Parr and David Stewart have created an IE6 Countdown to Death website complete with a fully functioning countdown timer leading up to the big day.
Personally, even though it’s been dead to me for over a year and Woopra Analytics is reporting only 4% of my visitors are using the specific “IE version 6″ over the past month, I can’t wait ’til this thing is completely non-functional on the internet.
Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado, isn’t waiting. They held a funeral last night (March, 4th) at Forest Room 5, also in Denver. Photos of the event are rolling in as we speak:
If you’re still using IE6, it’s definitely time to upgrade. Aren’t you tired of seeing misaligned web pages, suffering browser crashes and getting infected by web bugs? If you are, just go to the official Internet Explorer 8 web page and upgrade now. Then come back and see what Dead Rooster actually looks like!
Or, if you want to use what I use and recommend to all my readers, download the latest version of Firefox.
Dead Rooster is the online home of 
RIPDIAF, Internet Explorer 6. It’s even painful to remember what it looked like. That funeral looks fun, though.By the way, those last two links need to be fixed.
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William McCamment
reply on March 5th, 2010 7:37 pm:
I didn’t even like IE6 when it was new. I think I used Netscape back then. LOL
Thanks for the heads-up on the links. I have no idea how I did that; I fixed them.
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I found you on blogcatalog, I seen this story on Fox, this is funny, the sad part was if I lived near, I would have went just to say I did.
CEO Agent Builder Marketing
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William McCamment
reply on March 12th, 2010 6:00 pm:
If I lived close, I would have went to it too. I thought it was a great idea!
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Oh my god – internet explorer 6 dead? what a pitty!!!! =) It´s time to send some cards announcing it´s death =)
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RIP IE you are dead for me for years, soon Firefox is going to join you because it has so many addons that he doesn’t move. The future so far is after Chrom and Safari.
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I thought the funeral was held uears ago?
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Internet Explorer 6. It’s even painful to remember what it looked like. That funeral looks fun, though.
thanks,
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I remember eagerly waiting for this to download on my really crappy dial up connection.
One day later when all was said and done I wished I had my day back.
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Whoever uses IE6 in this day and age probably has a typewriter next to the pc. You never know what might happen with these new machines.
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Hehe funny, funeral or not… I have customers who’s still using it. And as a webdeveloper it’s a nightmare.
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You’ll get nothing but tears from me. Tears of joy.
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I love this post! This is really hilarious! I stumbled upon this post searching for some info on internet explorer. LOL. You made my day, William!
Dana James, review writer
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I thought I used the best browser, IE, until sometime in 2009 I heard that people were saying Firefox is the cat’s meow. I could never go back to that poor relation IE now, but those alternatives can’t be better than Firefox. Can anyone argue, that outside of too many addons, there is a superior browser? If so, really explain why, and I’ll thank you and take a look. The consensus is Firefox.
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Tim
reply on June 1st, 2011 9:45 am:
I used to love Firefox, but it does crash quite often. Chrome seems much more reliable to me, even with add-ons.
But does anyone else wonder if by using Chrome they are giving too much information to Google? I have to admit, it does cross my mind every so often…
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Great effort on the picture in the coffin. Firefox seem to be keeping its flame alive. Then there’s Chrome, but there is a particular article site that just doesn’t accept Chrome, making its use limited for me. Firefox it is so far.
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Yeah! I am also one of those who used IE6 previously, now I am using IE-8, so many new websites are not supported by IE-6, most popular community sites like Orkut and Facebook are also not supported in IE-6. we cant even watch Youtube videos in IE-6, and also no support of flash player-10. we can conclude IE-6 is no more from the above factors.
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There was an Internet Explorer version Six?
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yes you are right. Awesome content.
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I first discovered Firefox a couple months after it was released and honestly stick to that and Chrome unless I absolutely HAVE to use IE. There are some government sites out there that force IE still and that’s extremely lame. RIP IE. It will be back in zombie form I know it.
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Well I stop using internet explorer since many years ago… I do test the newest update but nothing works better than firefox. Too bad for microsoft
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I got rid of IE6 a long time ago and use Firefox now. It does crash sometimes though but I still prefer it to IE.
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Well, RIP IE6, I am not using you either and used Chrome. =)
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You said it friend, internet explorer 6 is so dead, and so are dead the days of complicated browser functionalities, which used to keep us novices uwake at nights… chrome has changed and totally revolutionalised internet browsers… I’m using it right now and it rocks… The new IE is better, but a lot still needs to be done… great post, thanks!
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Oh yes – and now in december 2011 I still meet some clients who are working on IE6 (!) And even better. They demand that we will continue to update their CMS to IE6 – even though we have shown them that their clients are working on FF, Chrome og IE8/9. Great post – got a laugh!
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that is too funny! IE goes to slow for me and i don’t use it any way. i don’t know anyone who still uses IE Fire fox is fast and personally that is the reason why i like using it.
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You said it friend, Internet Explorer 6 is so dead, as are the days of complicated browser functionalities, which used to keep us novices awake at nights… Chrome has changed and totally revolutionalised internet browsers… I’m using it right now and it rocks… The new IE is better, but a lot still needs to be done… great post, thanks!
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I don’t even like the last version of Internet Explorer. It’s still too slow, and I always receive different kind of warnings, which they bother me. I don’t like that the tabs (different pages) are positioned in front of the place where you write the URL; in Chrome or Firefox you have all the space you need to open these tabs.
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It is already dead! There are a lot of internet browsers in the market right now. So sad that they not updated, but I know someone that still he is using Internet Explorer 6. I would say that Internet Explorer 6 is dead in the market but not in the heart of the users.
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