[Web4lib] RE: Getting Rid of IE 6

[Tim Spalding]

We've been talking about this on LibraryThing. The thread might be of
interest: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=61916

Some thoughts:

1. I'm surprised you're at 10%. LibraryThing, which has a somewhat
more tech-savvy audience than most websites has only just reached 13%.
2. The strongest push-back comes from people who *can't*
switch—particularly people in companies or governments with
locked-down machines. If I were you, I'd call up all the Marin County
IT offices. If the city councilors can't hit the library site, that
might not be good.
3. We're going to ditch IE6 when it hits about 5%. But we're a
business—losing at worst 1/20 of our customers is worth it if we can
also cut development time by 20%.
4. I'm not convinced a government institution—a public library—should
use the same profit/loss logic as a company. If you did, you'd also
not support screen readers! It's hard to define the limits but
shouldn't a public institution treat minority interests with more care
than that? The people with super-old machines that can't upgrade are,
in a sense, the ones the library needs to help the most.

When, in a previous life, I developed educational software for public
schools, we had to support all machines then in use in the school for
seven years--so we were supporting Apple IIgs systems around 2001.
This is a technical nightmare, but I'm not sure it isn't what
governments should do.

Best,
Tim