I have a feeling that the majority of IE6 use takes place from work computers where employees don't have control over which browser is used. Therefore........ this won't work.
Well, the same argument applies with regard to work computers. If enough sites are broken in IE6 -- especially work-related sites and web apps, not just time-wasting sites -- then corporate IT departments will have to upgrade.
That said, the strategy outlined in the article runs into the collective action problem: if every web developer in the world stopped supporting IE6 at the same time, all web developers would benefit. But individual web developers have an incentive to keep supporting IE6, keep their user base happy, and free-ride on the sacrifices of other sites that drop IE6 support. So it's hard for an initiative like this one to gain much ground.
This is very true - I've been in and out corporates for years and most environments are locked down.
I mildly disagree with one assertion in the article:
-Another reason is many internal IT systems were built to use IE6 specific features-
This is somewhat true. However, the real reason that corporates don't upgrade is the cost of rollout.
In a big corporate you'll have literally 1,000s or 10,000s of desktops. This is compounded by the fact that a browser isn't a single application - it could be hundreds of applications.
Something like a bank is generally going to be very conservative, so they'll only attempt that if it's properly regressed and tested... The cost and risk of this (let alone if something does break) is generally not enough.
Only a couple of years ago I was at large bank that was still on Windows NT. They only migrated when the risk of being out of support outweighed the migration risk.
Even then, corporates have a fair bit of muscle and very often arrange extended support. A lot is of made of when products come out of support, but the reality is they are supported on these kinds of specific deals well beyond those timelines (and generally for a very tidy profit for the vendors).
I agree that most workplaces have no control over it. For example, we have IE6 where I work and I don't see it changing anytime soon.
However, by dropping IE6 support, its not to say everything on the site will be broken if you drop support. It'll just mean that from here on out, its possible things don't look or work quite as advertised, and it is suggested you upgrade your browser. It won't happen overnight, but it'll be better than having 25% market share for a browser thats a decade old in a couple years.
For me, I'd much prefer the web to slowly move forward than not at all.
For me, IE6 being the "corporate standard" is just more evidence of corporate IT departments slowly slipping into irrelevancy.
The last two contracts I've done have been what I (tongue-in-cheek) call guerilla contracts, where I've been building fairly big IT systems for parts of organisations that aren't IT.
I think as the younger generations get more senior in business, they won't have any time at all for corporate IT managers holding them back, or for arbitrary IT policy.
