If you have an analytics software that doesn't work in IE8. You lost analytics for 20-30% of your users.
And since array.prototype.slice.call is not supported in IE8, this analytics software is about 80-70% useful. And maybe even less if you have a large IE clientele.
Seems strange to me that one would limit themselves that much.
No, its really not, its a huge pain in the ass to support unless you handcuff yourself to its limitations.
> and also somewhere between 20-30% of your users.
Those numbers are wildly skewed by market segment. IE8 is a relic that mostly only exists on corporate controlled laptops at this point. If they aren't your target user, you can pretty much ignore them. None of the sites I work on see over 5% IE8 usage.
Around here IE8 is at < 7% market share; if your product is slightly related to tech that's more like 0%.
Sure it doesn't support a lot of HTML5/CSS3. But if you build a site using 100% HTML5/CSS3 then why do you even care what it looks like in anything but WebKit. Why spend 15 hours getting it to work in IE8. Let IE8 look like IE8, and the rest look like the rest. That's how it's suppose to be done.
IE8 is old, if you want to support it. You use older technologies. That's the point. If you want to use the newest and greatest you lose old support.
But to call it terrible is wrong, it is/was a solid browser.
Perhaps in some markets.
For one of the sites I write for, it's less than 5% over a large sample.