Die IE6! Die. Go to Hell Already

Dear IE 6
Its been a good run, now please leave.

Internet Explorer 6 is web designer’s nightmare. Sometime a website that you design nicely looks really bad in IE6.  You can take a look at some of best designed website in IE6 and you will understand what I am talking about ( I do not want to point to any site). Moreover, IE 6 does not support PNG. So, if you design your website using png image, all you will see is a grey block behind the image. Also, there are so many security issues with IE 6. I would just ask you to dump any browser Microsoft creates . Seems like anything they come up with is crap (Beside XP and Maybe Windows 7, there is hope). Still not convinced that IE 6/7 has lots of bugs a security issues? Here are the proofs.

So why some people still Use IE 6?

You would think if enough people have known about IE6 alternative browser such as : Firefox, Opera, Flock, Camino they would stop using it. Well not really! Some people have no choices and some people  are just too lazy upgrade. I will not go into too much detail about this. Read Chris Coyier’s detailed post about, Why  people still use IE? Chris explains in details with statistics .

5 things you can do to stop IE6

The reason I hate IE6 so much that I sometime I finish a project or theme in two days and later I will spend two or more days just debugging IE6. I will sometime spend hours googling IE 6 fix. Here are the couple of things you can do to help stop IE6

1. If you know somebody still using Internet Explorer 6, smack them in the head and ” Ask what the hell is wrong with you?” Just kidding. Ask (force) them to upgrade to  one these browser Firefox, Safari , Camino, Flock, Opera. Even more browsers..
2. If you are tired of fixing you can use this scripts to block IE from seeing your site: StopIE6js, IEBlocker
3. If your are using wordpress use these plugins: IE warnings, Upgrade IE, Stop Living in the Past , Shockingly Big IE6 Warning which comes with lot of options and ways you can warn or block your sites from IE6
4. Spread word about StopI6.org and StopI6.com.
5. Norwegian Campaign Against IE6

11 ways you can deal with IE 6 positioning and image problems

1. Use PNG fix to make sure your image displays correctly.  Here are 5 Easy Ways to Tackle IE6’s Transparency Issues.
2. Use separate stylesheet for IE 6, 7. How?
3. Cross Browser CSS Fixes, Tools, and Hacks
4. Get Cross Browser Compatibility Every Time
5. Avoiding CSS Hacks for Internet Explorer.
6. Fixed Position  Javascript and CSS for IE.
7. Box Model Hack
8. How fix IE issue using CSS?
9. Debugging IE 6  Tips : How I debug CSS in IE6?
10. Let Internet Explorer 6 Behave Like Internet Explorer 7
11. Noupe explains about The 7 CSS Hacks that we should use

Also, If you want to test your browser to make sure it works cross browser check out Designm’s guide on 10 Helpful Resources for Cross Browser Testing.

Well, Internet Exploere 7 seems better than Internet Explore 6 and maybe Internet explorer will be better (or not). Lets hope for the best. Please share and spread this post about IE6 , so that some of the web designer’s can get a good night sleep. If you everyone contribute on dumping IE6 maybe the web will be a better place to surf. Won’t you be a dear and Stop using IE6 Please?

About the author

Kawsar Ali is a web designer who also likes blogging. He is the curator of Desizn Tech. In his spare time he walks around with a Nikon D5100 hunting for good textures.

Tags: CSS IE position, IE 6, IE 6 PNG FIX