Comments on: What browser wars? The enterprise still loves IE 6

Forrester Research indicates that 60 percent of companies use Internet Explorer 6 as their default browser. Bottom line: companies need a browser policy to improve productivity.

[Heebee Jeebies]

No the bottom line is that companies don't have a clue about security, compatibility or anything else. This is why so much personal data ends up stolen and lost is because companies don't keep up with things. They worry only about their bottom lines and not about doing the right thing. This is why any time a company looses personal data they should be heavily fined. When the fines start costing more than keeping their systems and software up to date and secure then they will do it. Otherwise it will continue.

Greedy lame businesses is what caused our current financial mess, so the fact that they are still using a way outdated and what was even at the time it was new cr@p software isn't any surprise. The surprise is that out government doesn't pass laws to force them to do better with security to protect all of the personally data companies seem to think they have a right to have about us and not protect.

Robert

[sal-magnone]

Has anyone considered that companies aren't upgrading because they don't have to? IE6 works. This isn't an endorsement ... I'm just considering why a cash strapped, user harrassed CIO would justify and go thru any upgrade pain if he doesn't have to? Lot's of companies use old versions of Office, Notes, and other packages for the same reason.

[php_dude]

Cash strapped CIOs? But the upgrade to IE7/8 is free....but oh wait, the idiot CIO bought worthless software from another idiot microsoft shop that only supports IE6. I say that CIO is getting what they paid for :)

[glmyers.gma]

Although I intuitively believe the point of the article is accurate, corporate executives are incompetent to make technology decisions, I bet even the most idiotic reader quickly sees the percentages presented add up to well over 100%. (Not to mention the 60 + 39 = 78 debacle.) How is anyone suppose to believe anything in this article with such blatant errors?

[tm_anon]

Can nobody do basic match anymore?

60+39=99% with 1% room for error. Now, that 100% is just talking about the total amount of Internet Explorer usage, not total browser usage.

Taking the entire Enterprise browser base into account, then you get the 78% vs 22%.

I'm hoping that helps.

[jachamp]

The problem is that companies don't trust employees to do the right thing and employees justify this mistrust by always trying to take advantage of every inch they are given. If you let employees load their own browser, then you get employees loading their own crapware/malware ridden junk.

Conversely...most IT groups don't want to upgrade, less out of costs and programming, and more out of "we really haven't given it much thought"

Upgrading something that works for something that's supposedly faster means that a cost is incurred, even in man hours to perform the upgrades for starters. And for what? This is the misnomer that MS has built its empire on.

If no one upgraded WinXP to anything else, MS would be forced to address this. It's not worth having to buy expensive equipment and replace perfectly working systems only because the software changes.

95% of companies don't need it but someone somewhere has their brain in the off position because they want to believe that they need it.

[masonx]

I not particularly good at math being a biologist, but shouldn't the enterprise market shares of this survey total less than and not more than 100%? Is this more new math? What did I miss here?
"Forrester's market share stats illustrate how enterprises are sleeping through the browser wars:
* IE is the corporate browser of choice, with 78 percent of enterprises using it as a default;
* IE 6 has 60 percent of the enterprise market, with IE 7 clocking in at 39 percent;
* Firefox has 18.2 percent of the enterprise market;
* Chrome has 2 percent;
* Safari has 1.4 percent.

[tm_anon]

Why is it that nobody in the comments can do math? The article was dead on with the math.

Let me help you with this.

Enterprise use of IE (including IE6 and IE7/8) equals out to 78% of total browser usage.

The other browsers combined equal out to the remaining 22%.

Now, the 100% of IE browsers being used can be broken up into 60% IE6 and 39% IE7/8 with a 1% margin of error.

[winstein]

IE6? Read between the lines: most enterprises are still using Windows 2000 and Windows XP!

[jscott418]

I don't understand IT. They do not appear to be very interested in security of their browser if they are using IE 6. What gives for them to stick with such a old browser? My personal feeling is this is more about using older operating systems then anything else. In my travels I have seen many companies still working with Windows NT and Windows 98. I know, I cannot believe it myself. It seems many companies do not replace hardware very often. But you have to put some blame on these IT departments for eather ignoring browser upgrades or just not willing to go through the trouble. But the next time a big company get's hacked. We all can better understand why.

[wt3rf5]

I'm totally agree with "deregtx".

[Ken_Saunders]

I really don't see how any money is being saved. I'm sure that the time and money invested in software development and deployment was recouped long ago considering that IE6 was released nearly 7 1/2 years ago and as time moves on, so does the cost of everything including new software and the time and salaries of those that have to be paid to install it, maintain it, teach others how to use it, and for those that have to be paid to learn it. Plus the loss of time and productivity between transitioning can be an enormous expense. And what is the price tag that one would put on a security breach and data theft and/or loss? That alone could wipe out a company. Everything evolves and must move forward especially when it pertains to technology.

As for those defending Microsoft saying that it is the companies choice and fault, well, I strongly disagree. MS could have and could be making it much easier and much less costly for companies to stay up to date with the latest and safest software but they never have and never will. They have 3 different browser versions out right now and that isn't good for anyone at all except for Microsoft. They could move up the date of their end of life cycles had they not made it difficult if not impossible for companies to upgrade.
This is all in line with Microsoft's long standing and ongoing commitment to not give a damn about anyone or anything but themselves. They would actually profit more by making it more economically feasible and easier for companies to be able to upgrade to MS's latest software. Am I anti-Microsoft? Absolutely. They allowed me (and still allows others) to use software that they were fully aware of how unsecured, vulnerable, and out of date that it was and that hadn't been updated or bothered with for what four years until someone came along with something newer, better, and much safer.

I do thank Microsoft for chasing me away. I've been volunteering for and contributing to Mozilla for more than 4 years now and I've met some amazing and brilliant people from all over the World who all act selflessly and have strong morals, principles, and beliefs.
But surprisingly enough, if I can't convince a person, organization, or company that Firefox is for them, I'd much rather them use IE7 or 8 than IE6. IE6 is a drag on the progression of the Internet and blinders on those who aren't truly experiencing modern technology and all of the benefits that are associated with it.

[imaginenews]

It's not IT. it's the massive wide sweeping change that corps would have to go under to change out some 500,000 desktops to a newer version. At least with IE 6 they are aware of all the problems and the common platform let's them adjust quickly to those issues.

It's 1 part

Cost
Training
Deployment
Security,
Application Standards

Let me give a good example. I'm curious why IE 8 has a lot of problems with javascript. I frequently have to switch to the IE 7 rendering engine just to get some things that should be working work.

I mainly use IE 8 because required to, of course I have all the other browsers installed as well. Chrome - Opera. It's not that we love IE 6. It's that the choice is not ours to make.

And about the firefox IE extension. I've tried extensions and building sites for those in the past. Still it doesn't replicate or show you the real issues. maxthon,, ie 6 extension, etc...

I would love to throw IE 6 onto a subway track and watch it fry!

[dadsgravy]

That's Microsoft; cheap hardware and old software.

[Kimsh]

This article is foolish. The reason enterprises stick to IE6 is that they don't want to risk breaking in house applications that are just as antiquated as IE6. These apps don't gain anything significant from later browers. Saying that enterprises are missing out on consumer facing web sites that are way better in a later browser is just plain dumb. They are enterprises not consumers, you said it yourself. The author seems to be suffering from a little attention deficit. If the task you are trying to accomplish is transport logs down rails and the only fuel you have is wood, a steam train is the right vehicle. You can tell me about "bullet train wars" all you like and I will just smile and nod then get on with business. Hows that for a pointless Yugo matching metaphore?

[ChrisLang]

Microsoft themselves uses IE6 exclusively, their employees have no choice in the matter and they have no access to the Internet. I am not talking the idiot low level tech support guys either, I am talking the high level people that call you back when you have a real issue that concerns Microsoft.

I just ran the new Chrome in side by side real world tests here at home on a 2mb free WiFi connection, using a Vista lappy, it blew IE7 and Firefox away by twice the speed. Who cares what the speed tests say in the lab, I just cut two hours a day off my work with Chrome. Bye Bye IE, FF hello Google Chrome.

One reason for using IE6 in the Enterprise is that it does not run AJAX worth crap, so it keeps most off Facebook, if they can get out to the Internet at all.

[miaminica]

Chrome is good but does a recently released browser that still does not have features, either built in or added on through extensions and addons, a "rapid innovator"?

[SomeInternetUser]

Been using Chrome from the beginning but it still has too many bugs. The idea of Chrome is nice and if someone wants to have an OpenSource version s/he can use Chromium... but both still have to many bugs.

Firefox eats up all my RAM, Internet Explorer... well many pages look weird (don?t say it?s an IE problem) ... Opera.. well Opera is just Opera... a browser that you use once in a while... and then Safari.. the "good looking" browser... but it?s crashing too often :( So when they develop a real alternative to the big ones? :(

[rich1383]

You neglected to mention the horrible legacy coding issues of the very-broken IE6 rendering model. It can adds 20% or more to the project cost to develop and debug a sophisticated web 2.0-featured site that will function properly on IE6, when you start off programming for IE7 & FF.

Also, aren't there security issues with running such an old browser, even with all the latest patches? Anyone have experience testing that?

[01Phyxius]

I haven't personally, but anything as old and outdated as IE6 (even fully patched) will have security issues. PERIOD. Having said that, the alternatives aren't perfect either:
FF eats up RAM and leaks often
IE7/8 simply fail at everything
Chrome is too buggy
and Opera can have compatibility issues.

Therefore, while I agree that IE6 needs to die, it's not there is a perfect browser they can upgrade to. If it was my choice, it would be FF simply because of security.

[johnwtucson]

Where I work, we're using Windows 2000 and we CANNOT upgrade the browser past IE6.

Microsoft can't gripe about people using IE6 while simultaneously preventing any upgrade.

So we just use Firefox. And it, of course, pretty much updates itself.

[thelem3]

If you're going to base your article on statistics, then please don't make basic errors that a school child should spot:

"Today, the overwhelming majority of enterprises support Internet Explorer--remarkably, 60 percent of enterprises are still on IE 6."

I hope this was misquoted or out of context. It should be "60 percent OF THOSE are still on IE6"

* IE is the corporate browser of choice, with 78 percent of enterprises using it as a default;
* IE 6 has 60 percent [actually 46.8] of the enterprise market, with IE 7 clocking in at 39 percent [30.4];

46.8 + 30.4 + 18.2 + 2 + 1.4 = 98.8 (presumably rounding errors)
60 + 39 + 18.2 + 2 + 1.4 = 120.6!

[amyanne2222]

Everyone using IE 6 still should upgrade to IE 8 if only because microsoft is giving 8 meals to the hungry of america for every dowload. (Source: www.browserforthebetter.com)

Here is a recent video I found on the features of IE 8. Its pretty funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93zwRSJPoKU&feature=channel_page

[klor5]

Let me start off by saying I've never used Chrome and 90% of the time I use a Mac.
Safari 4 for Mac in my opinion is an excellent browser,uncluttered,very stable,very fast and intuitive,adds Coverflow and Top Sites capabilities to it's wonderful handling of History and bookmarks.A big step up from Safari 3.x.x.
Compared to Firefox's "Fun for a while" customisation options and general lack of cohesion (though I'd still keep it as my secondary browser, without a doubt),Safari 4 is a dream.Why?

Two things (mainly).

One-I have not come across anything in any other browser that comes close to Safaris' killer feature.
The Activity Window and its' ability to integrate with download accelerators such as iGetter and Speed Download.This window allows you to see just about every file that is in your browsers, cache.
This is especially useful when you want to down load videos off the net with optimum speed,especially those videos that the sites' operators don't want you to have a copy of.

Two-This is all well and good,but compared to its potential in terms of speed,Safari 4 on its own doesn't really squash the opposition (apparently).Answer?
Safari 4 + " Webkit nightly build" = Use those Opera Exploring Chrome vulpes to clean your floors.
While to surf the net, install Safari 4 for its superior framework compared to Safari 3.x.x.Then go to webkit.org and download the latest "Nightly Build" (yes I know Safari 4 is built around the Webkit engine) ,"Webkit Nightly Build" just manages to stay closer to the cutting edge in terms of overall speed.

Now with safari 4 closed,install and launch Webkit Nightly Build.It's easy to tell the difference between the two applications' icons-Safari has a silver compass ring,while Webkit has a gold one.
Now control/right click on the Webkit icon in the dock and click on "Keep in Dock".
Now just click the compass with the gold ring in the dock whenever you want to go surfing.

Safari on steroids.Voila.