Internet Explorer, should I still be worried about him?

Question

Internet Explorer, should I still be worried about him?

Asked 10 years, 10 months ago

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10

Today when developing a new website, should still worry about compatibility with old versions of Internet Explorer, or we have already overcome this phase?

I ask this because today I received the approval of a user of a site that we developed using bootstrap and jquery(I am using version 1.10 and not 2.0), and in the homologation he complained that the site is extremely slow and with the layout "messy" on ie7. And he said he couldn’t update to ie8.

So, it still makes sense to develop thinking about old versions of IE?

Web browsers most used in Brazil and the World in January - http://blog.locaweb.com.br/geral/navegadores-de-web-mais-usados-no-brasil-e-no-mundo-em-janeiro/

IE is from 2006 and still have people using! - http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer

Yes, unfortunately we still have to be worried about IE

– Silvio Andorinha

2014/02/13 at 18:30
In enterprises of development for the financial sector I know, they all use IE as the default browser. That’s because customer stations all have IE. In a very large international bank for which I provided services, the IE 7 era!

– utluiz

2014/02/13 at 18:33
I’d like to know why you’re not updating.

– Joao Paulo

2014/02/13 at 18:47
5

"[...] and in homologation he complained that the site gets extremely slow and with the "messy" layout in Internet Explorer 7." That alone does not answer your question? If the customer paid to run on IE7 and you accepted, your website should work on IE7, no?

– user568459

2014/02/13 at 18:57
Complementing, user of Windows XP can update until the Internet Explorer 8. This system still has relatively large marketshare but its support now ends in April 2014. No Vista can be updated until the Internet Explorer 9 but I believe that your marketshare is already smaller than the Windows 8. Windows 7 or higher rotate until Internet Explorer 11, younger by then.

– Vitor Canova

2014/02/14 at 14:23

5 answers

8

The answer is not yes or no because that is not the right question. It involves technical issues and issues of drawdown.

I quote below three main topics that should be taken into account when making this decision. They are based on years of experience, both as a web developer and in customer contact. Note the fact that this decision begins even before the project starts and before the price is set.

Target audience

Do target audience analysis to try to see some pattern before you counter-argue your client. If there is no specific nix, you can assume that the average found on internet sites will be your customer’s average. However, if there is a specific nix, for example your customer have a website with products for companies that tend to have old computers, you will naturally have to take seriously the issue of supporting older browsers.

Types of public applications targets that are quite different from the average, and tend to force support to older browsers

Benches
Websites for government
E-commerce sites (large size)
News sites focusing on non-metropolitan regions
Intranets (whose internal audience uses older browsers)

Target audience is the most important metric to define which browser version to support. Be supportive of the contractor and do not make him lose customers, and if necessary, covers the most already considering it.

Website features

If the customer has requested a responsive site, or features that only recent browsers handle well, use this as a favorable argument to remove support for older browsers. Consider this strongly in the price if the site is not basic.

When using third-party libraries, always look at their support for older browsers before using them. You should never promise support for an older browser than a library that explicitly uses support.

Price

Supporting older browsers comes at a price. Argue with your customer and make him aware before the agreement is concluded which will cost more expensive support to an ancient browser, such as IE6 and IE7 on the date of this reply. The price argument in general will make him give up or pay more expensive for the service.

Price is a variable that the client can change if he really cares about the browser version. Keep this in mind.

Final decision

Finally, take into account the target audience, site functionality and project price with your client. The ideal is to always ask for the most recent browsers possible, but strongly recommend not to force something that, for technical reasons, would be necessary, as is the case of the client’s target audience: there is no way to force the customer to use another browser, and this can impact sales. All other points, such as features and prices, are debatable.

Even if your site isn’t designed to work in an older version, if it’s not difficult, implement libraries that are only loaded in older versions of IE to support them.

Practical example

In general, the customer will not be willing to pay and nor is it interesting from a technical point of view and target audience to support browsers that has 1% or less of users who will use your site. On the date of this reply, this means that IE8 should still be supported.

Prior conversation and customer contract

Define browser support before the project starts in writing and signed between parties. This avoids problems
Unless the customer complains, leave in contract that the site should be functional in all approved browsers, however small visual differences may occur due to the very wide support of browsers, but such differences should never disturb the functionality of the site
Informally, or formally in the contract, say that the site may work in other browsers, including older ones, but this support is not guaranteed
Informally, or formally in the contract, say that to support older browsers, the contractor may add javascript libraries that improve this compatibility, but there is no way to commit that it will actually work in all cases, and explicitly say that an older browser will tend to run its site slower than a more modern browser, regardless of the machine running it.

1

I would take only the opinion part, or merge it with the rest of the answer, just to avoid comments of moderation.

– Leonel Sanches da Silva

2014/02/13 at 19:42
I will change the text to make it more coherent

– Emerson Rocha

2014/02/13 at 19:43

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by Erlon Charles • **5,352** points · Answer 1 · 2014-02-13T18:56:48+00:00

6

Yes and no.

It really depends on the scope of the project, whether your client requires it to work on ie8 or higher YES, you will have to worry about leaving the site completely compatible with the same.

If the customer makes no restrictions at the time of contracting the service or simply says that it should be crossbrowser, do not worry about the versions that no longer receive support from their producers, as much ie as for the others browsers.

Today the versions of iewhich are still supported by microsoft sane ie8 ie9 ie10andie11, any version prior to these will have extensive compatibility and security issues and should be updated.

I don’t recommend using libraries to increase the compatibility of website, that usually leaves the website slower than it should be.

1

A customer does not explicitly say they want IE < 8 support does not mean they do not want to. When in doubt, it is always preferable to ask to make clear.

– luiscubal

2014/02/13 at 23:09
A client not specifying his project well results in changes in the scope, which leads to re-work and consequently an increase in the final value of the product. The planning stage should be the one that demands the most time, in order to reach the production stage if we avoid the re-work and manage to keep minimally the expectation regarding the project.

– Erlon Charles

2014/02/14 at 11:47
But that’s not what the answer says. The answer says "if you don’t say anything, do what you want". That doesn’t stop scope changes. That cause scope changes.

– luiscubal

2014/02/14 at 15:33
It’s not "if you don’t say anything, do what you want", it’s "if you don’t say anything, do it for the most compatible" or "if you don’t say anything, do it for the ones who are defalt".

– Erlon Charles

2014/02/14 at 16:35
But different clients assume different versions as "default". In doubt, one should always clarify.

– luiscubal

2014/02/14 at 17:27
The default would be if you or the company you work in already has a policy set for it. I have a personal policy called byeIE, I don’t care a bit about IE if it’s not set and specified from the start and if the customer wants then he’ll have to pay extra for it or sign up with someone else.

– Erlon Charles

2014/02/14 at 17:50
A defined company policy is a (perfectly valid) type of explicit indication. The important thing is that the "client" knows this policy.

– luiscubal

2014/02/14 at 18:33
And that’s the idea. Didn’t the client say anything? Do it the quick and easy way, don’t try to guess what goes on in the customer’s head, this usually shit.

– Erlon Charles

2014/02/14 at 18:35
guess != ask him

– luiscubal

2014/02/14 at 18:38
And I ask in the definition of the scope, if at this time it does not define it...

– Erlon Charles

2014/02/14 at 18:40

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by Leonel Sanches da Silva • **88,623** points · Answer 2 · 2014-02-13T18:45:36+00:00

Not.

They made a Javascript library that fixes the pattern problems of old versions of Internet Explorer, accessible through the link below:

https://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/

Not only that, CSS compilers still generate code for IE:

SASS: http://sass-lang.com/
LESS: http://lesscss.org/
Stylus: http://learnboost.github.io/stylus/

by jean • **904** points · Answer 3 · 2014-02-13T19:16:54+00:00

Yes! But it depends on the version.

See this chart that I built on Statcounter (Using by version last year):

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version_partially_combined-BR-Monthly-201301-201401

You can drop IE9- and focus on IE10+

Great news because IE has really been getting better (just a few years ago I would never imagine myself saying this).

IE10 and IE11 are much better, even with good development tools.

Here in the company when some GP comes with requirement for IE9- I already show this graph and we take out the scope.

There will always be portability problems between browsers, even FF and Chrome have their problems but fortunately I have used much less conditional for different browsers in recent years.

by josepostiga • 31 points · Answer 4 · 2014-02-13T19:29:17+00:00

As Erlon Charles replied, it will always depend first on contractual details developed with the client(s)).

In cases where this does not apply, I usually go further than the colleague said and only give full compatibility with two versions of each browser (the most current and the previous). This is because if we, who have developed newer applications, do not "force" users to update their browsers (or other dependencies), then it will take much longer for new technologies to become standard on the Internet.