Groundspeak Phasing Out Support for Older Browsers

[+dakboy]

On topic, I'm aware of all the stuff IE6 doesn't do that modern browsers do, but I haven't been able to figure out what IE6 does do that modern browsers don't, that prevent some organizations from upgrading. Can anyone enlighten me?

It doesn't require an IT guy to come around and upgrade the browser, for one. (Someone upthread brought up one thing already.)

"Come around"? You should be pushing software out via management tools, not walking to every desk.

Regardless.

That's just a fancy "whatever."

 

If your organization is capable of managing IE & Windows update distribution centrally, pushing out other software installs/managing them is not that much more effort, including Firefox.

[+Team Cotati]

I can't help but think about all of the inept and disinterested company supervisors and managers out there who seem to possess low skills in managing work assignments and in ensuring that their company properly staffs their departments to meet the measurable and observable delivery of the company's products and/or services.

 

You'd think that upper management would have a better handle on the degree to which it's human resources are meeting the organization's goals for maximum operating efficiency.

I'm having trouble figuring out how your post relates to this thread.

 

Odd isn't it, I had the very same thoughts running through my head while I was composing my post.

 

Go figure.

 

I have a strong suspicion though that at least one poster in here can help you figger it out. ;-)

If you knew that your post wasn't on-topic, one wonders why you posted it.

 

Tell me about it. I was wondering the very same thing.

[+sbell111]

On topic, I'm aware of all the stuff IE6 doesn't do that modern browsers do, but I haven't been able to figure out what IE6 does do that modern browsers don't, that prevent some organizations from upgrading. Can anyone enlighten me?

It doesn't require an IT guy to come around and upgrade the browser, for one. (Someone upthread brought up one thing already.)

"Come around"? You should be pushing software out via management tools, not walking to every desk.

Regardless.

That's just a fancy "whatever."

 

If your organization is capable of managing IE & Windows update distribution centrally, pushing out other software installs/managing them is not that much more effort, including Firefox.

Since I am not in charge of how the government manages software upgrades, that doesn't matter.

[+sbell111]

I can't help but think about all of the inept and disinterested company supervisors and managers out there who seem to possess low skills in managing work assignments and in ensuring that their company properly staffs their departments to meet the measurable and observable delivery of the company's products and/or services.

 

You'd think that upper management would have a better handle on the degree to which it's human resources are meeting the organization's goals for maximum operating efficiency.

I'm having trouble figuring out how your post relates to this thread.

Odd isn't it, I had the very same thoughts running through my head while I was composing my post.

 

Go figure.

 

I have a strong suspicion though that at least one poster in here can help you figger it out. ;-)

If you knew that your post wasn't on-topic, one wonders why you posted it.

Tell me about it. I was wondering the very same thing.

There's a cache near here:

Unfortunately, I could not pull the cache page up because we use IE6 here.

Edited March 26, 2010 by sbell111

[+Prime Suspect]

Ahh, I missed that post. Thanks for making me look back through everything.

 

Funny thing, for the last 6 years I've been using Firefox pretty much exclusively on my 7 year old laptop. Out of curiosity I just looked to see what version of IE I have installed, and was amused to find it's IE6

 

I think later I'll get drunk and try to browse the geocaching.com site with it

Apparently, IE6 has a color rendering mode that meets specific industry standards, that Firefox and some other browsers don't have. And there have been (not cheap) add-ons written to make use of that, which won't run on later versions. Businesses rely on using those add-ons, so they keep IE6 around.

[+TotemLake]

I can't help but think about all the wasted time people are spending at work recreating instead of.... working.

 

blame it on the slow economy, what else can one do while waiting for the markets to pick up?...you guessed it, geocaching

I am constrained by outside forces to add anything more. Sometime down the road I may fill ya in what the peripheral damage is.

 

don't take everything you read too serious, i am aware of "the peripheral damage", it was a joke, the smilie will indicate that

You made a mistake assuming I didn't see the joke. My response was not of ignorance of the tongue in cheeck remark, but of a real situation.

Edited April 7, 2010 by TotemLake

[+Kiwi Nomad]

I can't help but think about all the wasted time people are spending at work recreating instead of.... working.

 

blame it on the slow economy, what else can one do while waiting for the markets to pick up?...you guessed it, geocaching

I am constrained by outside forces to add anything more. Sometime down the road I may fill ya in what the peripheral damage is.

 

don't take everything you read too serious, i am aware of "the peripheral damage", it was a joke, the smilie will indicate that

You made a mistake assuming I didn't see the joke. My response was not of ignorance of the tongue in cheeck remark, but of a real situation.

 

I was listening to the news on tv recently and there have been studies done showing that taking a break (5 to 10 mins) each hour doing non work personal stuff actually can increase productivity.

 

Agreed some people go over board with it and it would reduce the amount of work they get done. Had a work mate who could easily take 2 smoke breaks an hour and not consider it wrong to then also take her morning tea and lunch breaks. I'm sure she spent just as much time away from her desk not working as she did at her desk. Even felt the boss was picking on her when asked how many ciggi breaks she took.

[+Kiwi Nomad]

BACK ON TOPIC

 

How can I tell which version my pc is running of Internet Explorer?

[+Team Cotati]

BACK ON TOPIC

 

How can I tell which version my pc is running of Internet Explorer?

 

Help, About.

[+josebasser]

Is that why when I do an advanced search for caches and I click to hide my finds and caches I own, they still show up?

[+Lil Devil]

Is that why when I do an advanced search for caches and I click to hide my finds and caches I own, they still show up?

No, that's an unrelated bug. It's not formatting the URL correctly. Add "&f=1" (without the quotes) to the end of the URL for the desired effect.

[+power69]

We're using IE 6 where I work for the DOD also.

DOD = Department of Defense? Like, in charge of defending the country?

IE6 = Web browser renowned for security vulnerabilities?

 

That's kind of funny.

DOD can be a person in the army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard.

[+hairball45]

I'm going out on a limb here, but I suspect DOD & corporate America use IE6 because of the fact that most of their computers use some form of Windows. Running IE6 is well within the capabilites of most of the machines. Because the taxpayers would justifiably shriek if computers were changed every time a new version of this that and the other thing comes out, they continue to use a lowest common denominator setup. This holds for the private sector too. Around here they have reduced the number of PCs as much as possible, stating that they save a total of $1400 per year for each one they can eliminate. It is unlikely that they will change to Linux or MacOS real soon, either. Linux is rather specialized and Apple is, outside of graphics creation and such, seen as pretty much of a consumer, rather than business platform. Firefox and Safari, again seen as mostly for the hobby market as opposed to the office with 6000 or so machines on the network. I don't see them jumping away from IE real soon. We have several XP boxes, recently converted from 2K, and still at least one still running 2K. Not long ago we retired an IBM 1800. Now off to Google with ya to see what that was.

[+Harry the furry squid]

Uhh, isn't discussing whether a post is off topic, off topic in itself?

 

On topic, I'm aware of all the stuff IE6 doesn't do that modern browsers do, but I haven't been able to figure out what IE6 does do that modern browsers don't, that prevent some organizations from upgrading. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

It's more that (a) various bits of internal gubbins are set up for IE6 and will crash in flames if faced with a more modern browser, and more crucially (b ) if you're a huge company with an estate of tens of thousands of PCs across multiple countries, a change of standard software build (such as browser version) is a major project in itself. Fiddling with things such as firewalls centrally, however, is easier to do and doesn't rely on those tens of thousands of users all following the same set of instructions at the same time.

 

I work for a (theoretically*) japanese IT company with thousands of users in the UK alone. Our standard software build is XP and IE6. The only major security issue I'm aware of that actually happened round here is someone leaving his laptop on a train, and even then it's a (relatively) minor issue since, like all our kit, said laptop was encrypted and even if it wasn't shouldn't have been able to access anything interesting without being plugged into the right network** anyway.

 

Said encryption software also encrypts anything you plug into it. Memory sticks, camera memory cards (but we're not allowed to have cameras in the building anyway) etc etc. Which means they won't work afterwards *except* with company-encrypted PCs. Don't plug your ipod into one, it gets expensive.

 

Trying to interfere with the software build is a sacking offence.

 

This also goes some way towards explaining why I'm still online at 2am. I'm trying to do a cache list for the weekend - something I always used to do in the Friday lunch break. I can't do this from work any more, and having tried repeatedly throughout the evening I still can't get the maps to load on my home PC (running Firefox 3.5.9, not exactly ancient as browsers go) which makes finding caches along a walking route rather hard to do.

 

What I suspect I'll end up doing is sitting up past 4am (again) generating a list of everything within a 20 mile radius of the campsite I'm aiming for, then plotting all of them by hand on the paper map of the area to work out which are where and hence generate a feasible walking route.

 

As a premium member, I pay to use this site. It's the only site I pay to use.

 

It's the only site I visit regularly that seems to go out of its way to be a pain in the bum to use.

 

FFS.

 

(Aaaand . . . breathe.)

 

 

 

(*We still have a Japanese name and HQ, everything else is global.)

 

(** Files go on your network share, not your hard drive. That way, in the event of death of hard drive, upgrade or theft of PC, said files are still there.)

Edited April 23, 2010 by Harry the furry squid

[+russellvt]

Good move.

 

Is there a similar list (supported / unsupported) for mobile browsers?

 

Thanks.

 

(I use a Nokia N800, and I wish your full site could adapt well to an 800-pixel display.)

 

No. We have chosen to focus on designing applications for specific mobile platforms instead (currently iPhone and Android). Given the complexity of the site we simply don't have the resources to design with mobile displays in mind.

 

Seems like it would be more beneficial to everyone to simply write a standards-compliant WAP site (which would work on all devices) than to pigeon-hole yourself in to two mobile platforms (ie. a much more time-consuming and costly venture).

 

Then again, I'm sure the individual app-stores are probably the real driving force, here... ;-)