But I have to ask: isn't any "solution" that requires IE 11+ practically useless to the point of being fictional for at least the next decade?
• Websites that are mobile-only
• Things that aren't websites but use HTML5 for UI (e.g. many native mobile and desktop apps do this, browser extensions, 'installable web apps' for Chrome etc.)
• Websites for whom the IE audience is such a minority that it's worth either (a) blocking them out and asking them to upgrade, or (b) maintaining a minimal-effort fallback stylesheet for IE users so they can at least access a low-fi version of the site – in return for the gains in performance and UI quality that the vast majority of users get, and for incalculable benefits in developer happiness and productivity.
I do front-end for a newspaper website and I have to offer some support right down to IE7, but it's a realistic guideline (some support – content basically visible, with warnings displayed to those users suggesting they upgrade). If we were to restrict ourselves to browser features supported by 100% of our users, this would be a lowest-common-denominator approach led by the most low-tech 5% of our users, which would give us a big competitive disadvantage. I use new browser features all the time, and fallbacks for IE users. I haven't used Flexbox yet, but I wouldn't hold back if it meant we could implement something good for a large proportion of our users (especially since that proportion is likely to be made up of the users who are responsible for most of our revenue).
That means that most IE users will be upgrading to the latest IE of whatever OS they're using. So when Window XP is officially abandoned (scheduled for spring 2014), it won't be long until most IE users are on the latest version.
Locking browser upgrades to OS upgrades without huge a technical justification. With XP maybe there was a case that it was too hard to support all the changes needed but Vista to Windows 7/8? This was a business decision not a technical one.
At least Vista uptake was relatively small.
There is 0 technical justification, just some exec decision. Thanks to that and crappy XP security (by design , there is no other word), you have these huge botnets that will be here for years.
Companies need to understand that XP , and IE on XP is a threat to their business, their data and using Microsoft products will damage them sooner or later, and i'm not even talking about MSFT racketeering ,sorry license policy.
StatCounter[1]: XP 20.58%, Vista 5.21%
Among gamers, XP and Vista are about equally unpopular.
Steam[2]: XP32 6.83%, XP64 0.35%, Vista32 5.18, Vista64 2.32%
There are signs that the rate of decline is slowing: http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-quarterly-200803-201303 I think our best bet is that residual users switch to a better browser on XP.
XP is currently on 20%, but IE8 is at 8.5%: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version_partially_combine...
I know my company would never support a browser that wasn't even supported by its maker, and I'm sure a lot of companies wouldn't either.
If you have "customers" you'll probably drop IE8 support quickly in 2014. If you just have "visitors", and if those visitors are international, it might take longer.
Check the weekend/weekday variation in IE8 usage. It plummets at weekends to a negligible amount.
Windows XP users aren't able to install many, many things nowadays, what make you think they will be shocked to know they're really can see the majority of the websites well.
The other day i was demoing a friend my old macbook (2002) and all the major websites were simply, broken. We didn't have any "omg look". It's normal to experiment this before they enter your website.
Sadly the apps we build for them for the public see very little actual IE8 use...
I'm hopeful 2014 death of XP comes true, but I won't be surprised if actual death doesnt happen until 2015
Third party support businesses stand to make a pretty profit off of Microsoft ditching support for XP. I'm afraid XP will live on for quite some time after it's officially unsupported.
The medical field is perhaps one of the largest supporters of these ancient systems. I can't tell you how many times I've heard my medical friends say they use EMR and documentation software that ONLY works in IE6. You think those underfunded nursing homes and second rate hospitals are going to spend thousands updating their systems?
http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/78ef12e58dd1ba200600...