IE6 is dead
As others have pointed out, IE6 isn't dead yet. Any person or business that is stubborn enough to use IE6 nowadays is probably also stubborn enough to keep using Windows XP for another year or ten.<p>And I'm afraid a lot of us have been complicit in the unusually long life of this dreadful monster, as well as of its just-as-dreadful offspring, IE8.<p>By "us" I mean everyone who has ever developed a website in the last few years and consciously tweaked the code to make it work in an old version of IE. Or anyone who claimed to discontinue support for IE[6-8] but quietly kept fixing IE[6-8]-related bugs in their spare time.<p>Because every time a website tweaks its code for compatibility with an old version of IE[6-8], IE[6-8] gets another drop of unicorn blood to sustain its life. Since the majority of websites even today work relatively well in IE[6-8], the inconvenience of occasional breakage does not outweigh the inertia of IE[6-8] users. Even among people who call themselves programmers, I know of plenty who just don't bother to install updates. They won't act until their pants are on fire.<p>If we really want to kill IE[6-8], we need to set fire to their pants. We can't just sit back and count the days until somebody else (Microsoft) mercifully kills IE[6-8] for us. How about we all agree upon a certain date on which we <i>intentionally</i> break our websites and services for IE6 users? We should bring as many websites on board as possible, just like what happened with the SOPA blackout. Any IE6 user who tries to visit any marginally popular website on or after that date will be refused service and told to 1) upgrade to Windows 7+ and IE 10+, 2) install another browser, or 3) nag their bosses to let them do so. That's right, no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Wikipedia, no reddit, no webmail, no lolcats, no porn (!) anymore for you. Within a month, IE6 will be wiped off the face of the planet forever, and whatever remains will be safely confined to intranets. Just like smallpox. Three months later, we repeat the blackout for IE7. Six months later, we boycott IE8 as well.<p>Don't we, the HN crowd, have the power to pull off a boycott like that?<p>Will it be an ethical thing to do? Will it even be legal?<p>I don't know. It does sound rather perverse to refuse service to IE6 while keeping the website fully accessible for Lynx.<p>But I do look forward to the day when website developers collectively decide to stop being a slave to browser market shares and take the business into our own hands once and for all. Because IE[6-8] deserves it. It has hurt us all a thousand times more than the outgoing CEO of Mozilla has ever hurt gay couples. We can't just sit and wait for it to die. We need to point our keyboards at it and shout <i>Avada Kedavra</i> with extreme prejudice.<p>/daydreaming