IE6 support caveats, IE8 is out, please upgrade your browser...

Submitted by arttus on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 13:34

I've always felt that if web designers get together and stop supporting IE6 then people will have no other option but to upgrade to a more modern browser. It seems the good folks over at http://iedeathmarch.org have had the same idea. March 2009 looks like the official date that everyone is agreeing support will be dropped.

There are various levels of militancy about this, I like the approach of adding a a special script.

<?php $browser = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];


    //running internet explorer

    if($msie = strpos($browser, "MSIE"))

    {

        //version number

        $ver = substr($browser, $msie + 5, 3);
        if($ver < 7.0)

        {

            echo    '

                        Welcome!
                        It appears you\'re using Microsoft Internet Explorer '.$ver.'.
                        Since Microsoft does not wish to fix this ancient and bug-ridden browser, the developer of this site has refused to support it.

Before you can proceed to this site you will need to upgrade to a modern browser, such as Safari, Chrome, FireFox or Internet Explorer 7 or 8. '; exit(); } } ?>

I'm more then happy to include IE6 support if clients would like to request it, but i really think if we get proactive about dropping this browser we can make it go away much quicker.

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