No IE6.1+

piersk

Apparently (I'm assuming that it's cos of the anti-trust case), MS are not going to be developing any more standalone versions of IE, and 6.1 is the last version that will be shipped this way. If you want a more up to date version, you will have to buy longhorn (when it eventually comes out).

As far as I'm aware, this also means that there will be no more security updates either...

bad76

Originally posted by piersk
As far as I'm aware, this also means that there will be no more security updates either...

this also means that there will be no more bug-program either. 🙂 😃

goldbug

Who cares? IE sucks anyway. And before anyone chimes in with the usual "banking software" bullcrap, realize it's your bank that sucks. 🙂

jebster

Good! And there is no way I am buying longhorn! Screw MS! Old OS's and Mozilla will be fine with me! 😉

elToro

Who cares?

Web developers care, because we know that, despite our best efforts to the contrary, IE for Windows is what nearly everyone is using. Less frequent (and less widely available) improvements to that product means we'll be stuck supporting the current version for the foreseeable future. While it's a far better lowest common denominator than NS 4 was, it still means that most folks won't be seeing full PNG support and support for advanced contextual selectors in CSS until who-knows-when.

I'm assuming that it's cos of the anti-trust case

On the contrary, this seems to fly in the face of the anti-trust rulings. It was bundling IE with Windows that got them into trouble in the first place. Now, they're making it available only as a bundled product.

Personally, I think that part of their motivation is to convince everyone that IE is truly inextricable from Windows. Of course, anyone with a technical bone in his or her body knows that's a load of crap.

goldbug

Originally posted by elToro
Web developers care, because we know that, despite our best efforts to the contrary, IE for Windows is what nearly everyone is using.

Some do. At some point, though, you need to make a stand and stop limiting your work because of lack of support. While it makes sense for mission-critical sites to support a wide range of standards, smaller sites really don't need to cater to outdated browsers (and users) as much, imho. IE hasn't had a worthwhile engine update in a couple of years now. That, imho is too old to bother writing hacks for.

Boils down to a difference in thinking/preference. I'll stick with making my sites standards-compatible, and won't coddle outdated users, and like it dammit! 🙂

elToro

Supporting IE 6 doesn't mean using hacks instead of using standards. It basically means limiting which standards you can support (e.g. avoiding PNGs with alpha transparency and advanced contextual selectors and most pseudo classes in CSS).

Try telling a client that you refuse to support IE for Windows when that's what more than 85% of their visitors will be using.

Moonglobe

actaully for a REALLY small site, simple standards-complianthack will work, most of the time....... but not always it seems 🙁