The IE6 nightmare might be back soon | Hacker News Reader

The IE6 nightmare might be back soon

webjac.com

1 pointwebjac6 comments

Learn about the browser that is on the way to become the new IE6

Sure, let's forget all about the hundreds of millions of IE8 installs.

It's completely unclear to me what you mean by this, and what relevance it has to the submitted item. The article is saying that perhaps Safari Mobile is going to have all the undesirable characteristics of IE6, and cause all of the same developer headaches that IE6 caused. It seems a reasonable thing to say, even if people disagree with it and offer alternative points of view.

So I really don't understand what your comment is saying, or what it adds to the discussion. Could you expand on it?

Thanks.

Hi Colin!

Mobile Safari gets updated when iOS is. The vast majority of iOS devices run the most recent version of iOS. Therefore, most iOS devices have a current browser and will remain current.

Mobile Safari is not a bad browser, but Android Browser and IE8 are. Hundreds of millions of devices run Android Browser or IE8 and we're stuck with those for a long time to come. So yes, there's a new IE6 nightmare, but its name isn't Mobile Safari.

Thank you - that's a much more constructive and helpful reply - now I can see what you mean.

I'm not a web developer, but I like to keep track of the broader picture, and articles like this, with responses like yours, are useful.

Thanks.

Thanks Collin and Samuel for your comments. When I read Samuel's first comment I reacted a little like Collin as well, but I understand better.

Samuel you're right in most of your reasoning. But most companies now have a policy of supporting the 2 latest previous versions. For example Facebook already announced they'll be dropping support for IE8. Google I think will do so as well.

So right now IE8 and Android browsers are bigger nightmares, I know that, but I think on a longer term, when IE8 and Android Browser are irrelevant (they're starting to be already) Safari Mobile might be the one that gives us headaches.

Every day, thousands of Android handsets are sold with a default browser that will likely never see a major upgrade. Why would you disregard that while criticizing Mobile Safari for its update policy, a browser on a OS which actually does receive updates?

Hundreds of millions of people use IE8 to browse the web. Many of them use XP, so they can't upgrade to IE9. Less than 3 years a go, computers with Windows XP were still for sale. IE8 is going to be around for a long time.

Many Android handsets will never see an update. Even if as of today, all Android handsets were sold with Chrome (which is a far cry from reality), it would take at least 3 years before we can stop developing for Android Browser.

Do you know how many people use a 2 year old version of Mobile Safari? Very few. You can stop developing for it right now. That's why Mobile Safari isn't anything like IE6.

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