You’ll find countless arguments and hate aimed at IE6, mostly because it can be a pain in the ass to code for, bad security and really is holding back how some view the web.  So just how many people still use this outdated browser?

I’ve taken snapshot of 1000 unique visitors here are the results:

Of course this being a tech-savvy site, the majority of users are less likely to be using out-dated browsers, but still around 21 out of 1000 people are using IE6.  Apply that to a mainstream site with all types of users and the percentage will increase without doubt.

Personally, unlike a lot of web designers are now doing, I’m not turning my back completely on IE6 until I’m sure it’s dead.  I still make sure that it is usable for IE6 users, even if it’s not as pretty as in say firefox.  With the use of CSS it’s now pretty easy to target IE6 and fix up any element that’s causing issue.

Save the developers used to have a little bit of java that created a popup when the users browser was recognised as IE6.  This is a great idea for users that just don’t have a clue about newer browsers, or who don’t care.  But for the people because they have no choice – whether they’re using work computers and can’t upgrade, or their computer is too old to run newer browsers it’ll just serve to piss them off further!

With major companies pulling support for the old browser, hopefully it will slowly die, but for now, while there are still helpless soles who are forced to use it, we should offer up, at the very least, a usuable experience dontchathink?