Trash All IE Hacks

Let’s admit it, we all hate Internet Explorer 6. About 80% of our CSS debug time are spend on IE6. We all know that IE6 is outdated and has horrible CSS rendering engine. However, most average Internet users haven’t realized that yet. Why? Because we put our hard work on it and patch the bugs by various IE hacks. Well, it is time to do something…

Common IE hacks

CSS Conditional comments
In order for our sites to work on specific verson of IE (due to improper CSS rendering), CSS conditional comments are used to apply special CSS specifications to fix it. If you haven’t realized this yet, read the IE bug articles on positioniseverything.net (warning: you might hate IE more after you read them).
PNG hack
As mentioned early, IE6 is outdated and doesn’t support PNG alpha transparency. In order to display PNG (with alpha transparency) properly in IE6 or older version, we use this hack.

Aleksey asked on "Simple Double Quotes":
"Hello Nick. I see some bug.
The Close button ( X ) don’t transparent. Test on IE6 and MyIE."

My response:
"Yes, I know the PNGs don’t display probably in IE6. But guess what, I’m not going to bother to fix it. I’m sick of hacking IE6 bugs. You should upgrade your browser anyway. Why are you still using the outdated browser?"

Why trash IE6 hacks?

I know this is difficult because about 37% (according to w3schools.com) of internet users are still using IE6. But, together we can make a different. Stop using IE hacks on your sites and let them see the ugly side of IE6. Eventually, they will find a better browser (ie. Firefox) or at least upgrade to newer version of IE.

Update:
Agree with the comments below, the statistic from W3schools does not reflect the entire internet. According to TheCounter.com, the global browser stats of IE6 users is 52% in July 2007.

Support me

If you agree with me, please support Web Designer Wall by making a vote and spreading out the word. Let’s trash all IE hacks and code happily ever after…

Loading …

Conclusion

85% voted yes

15% voted no

Here are what people have said:

"My boss will fire me if my sites don’t work in IE6" because 52% of internet users are still using IE6.
Display a message (in yellow bar), "You are using an outdated browser, please upgrade your browser" to IE6 users.
If it is a personal project, you can ignore all the IE6 users. But for professional or commercial projects, you can’t live without them.
Avoid using any features (ie. PNG, CSS selectors) that are not supported by IE6.

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Comments

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There are 320 comments (+Add)

320 Nebomax http://nebomax.co.za/
August 27th, 2008 at 1:10 am

It’s a REVOLUTION!!!
Time to Revolt! Gather the masses! Get your pitchforks and let’s lynch the beast! Microsoft be warned! We’re going to do what you should’ve done years ago!! We’re all going open-source!! mwahahahahaaaa!
319 Alfonso Surroca http://blog.asurroca.com
August 25th, 2008 at 9:29 am

I’m happy to say that the site I made for my employer looks bad in IE6, and I don’t care. I spent so much time working on IE6 hacks in the beginning, and when I explained how much time/money it cost, I was told to stick an “upgrade to Firefox or IE7″ banner and forget about it. Let that be a lesson: if your boss is hesitant, just explain how much money they’re wasting. Since then, I’ve had more time to work on projects that actually contribute to the company’s bottom line. Also, since then, our IE6 share has shrunk to almost nothing, despite the number of visitors increasing.
318 HateIE
August 21st, 2008 at 7:43 am

I think the Chinese population counts to a big part of the 55% users who use IE. Other browsers are not an option in China since absolute majority of the sites don’t work properly with Firefox and Safari. Big shame. But most internet sites treat the viewer like s..t with trashy designs anyway. I don’t think Chinese can demand good design so far yet. So that’s a big number off the 55% of horrible IE supporters.
317 Designer
August 11th, 2008 at 5:45 am

According to thecounter.com IE6 has only 36% users in August 2008 as compared to 52% last year… I think you should update your stats

Btw, it also depends on what kind of website you have.. At a level where I work I don’t even have to bother about IE6 as most of my seniors have MAC
Also because we sell stuff we know the potential buyers won’t be using IE6 if they are serious buyers… So think that whoever is using IE6 is probably using a PIRATED copy of XP, believe me! And don’t think you are turning down potential customers as most of the IE 6 users are newbies on the internet and don’t have anything else to do than checking their mail and few news sites… So I guess websites like gmail.com and nytimes should worry about IE6! Not the people who have a Designing Blog

IE6 we hate you!
316 Mahadji, kinta http://komputerblog.com
August 9th, 2008 at 7:37 am

This is a great site, thanks.
IE 6 is very … all of you now that, my site is okay in every browser but not in IE 6 so why I’m ALWAYS using hack feature in CSS to make the site show properly. I hope THIS bug is not happens again in IE future, because this make web developer think hard
315 Martin http://www.truepresence.co.uk
August 5th, 2008 at 11:26 pm

Its a great idea in principle but ignoring a potential 52% of users for any of my clients sites is not justifiable. IE 6 is still used in a lot of workplaces and internet cafe’s which leaves the user no choice but to use the abomination.

I have to say, I hardly ever get cross browser inconsistencies anymore. I know what the problems are going to be so I fix them before they happen. As long as you use a decent reset CSS and you have a good understanding of the potential IE issues then designing for all browsers is pretty simple.

Whilst something clearly needs to be done, I don’t particularly think alienating a potential 52% of users is the right strategy.
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August 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

You’ve certainly raised I lot of wonderful points however that’s going to be a hard one.
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312 Mr Contreras
July 21st, 2008 at 8:45 am

Just like other people have commented already, my company runs on Exploder v6; therefore, my code must display correctly for that web browser regardless of how it looks in any other browser that displays according to the standard. For personal web pages; however, I don’t even bother trying them out with IE. I figure that most people will eventually realize how much better web pages look in other browsers such as Firefox and Opera and will decide to make the change. It’s up to us to make IE 6 no longer usable so that it may disappear for good.
311 shankar thapa
July 16th, 2008 at 6:46 am

well nice to see this article.. but i am from india.. where people still use IE6.. even more over that.. most of the people does not know about the FF or opera.. from them like… its time to browse or check mail.. they proceed with IE.. what ever version installed in their system. Even more over i meet some client.. who don’t even wanna upgrade their browser and their browser’s utility, when i told them to installed flash player9.
In india it will take time….