UK gov sticks to IE 6

[swamp]

I worked on an IE6-only app for the public sector recently. With a small amount of work it would run on any browser, and I pointed out they should do this as IE6 was soon EOL, but there was absolutely no appetite for it. There wasn't even any concern that the new work we did would not work on IE7, Firefox etc.

Personally I couldn't care less. Public sector clients don't; it's not like they are spending their own money! And besides, it will ultimately spell more work for contractors.

I also have no sympathy for developers who moan about IE6. I mean, FFS, in my day I had to wrestle with IE3+ and NS2+, Netscape Palette, 640x480, differences across operating systems. I could only dream about something as good as IE6! I even worked with IE2 once

[xoggoth]

"weeks to test and roll out to all users" What are they talking about? Takes about 10 mins to download and instal.

[Zippy]

"weeks to test and roll out to all users" What are they talking about? Takes about 10 mins to download and instal.

The users won't be able to do it themselves. IT support look like the IT Crowd but without the brains. Seriously.
Web sites won't work the same and the intranet won't work at all.
Your help desk will be tied up for the next three months by thickos claiming that "the screen looks funny"

[TykeMerc]

This is all about their internal apps, which is no big deal really. It's no different from having some old bit of internal bespoke software which has been in use since 1997 or something. It's just that this stuff runs in an old browser rather than some terminal in the corner of the office or something.

Legacy app syndrome, very common in just about everywhere I've worked for the last decade. In many cases it would cost insane amounts of cash to replace these apps.

The workers can always install FF, Chrome, Opera or whatever if they want to use the web properly.

Not on a properly locked down environment they can't.

Or do they mean they're going to continue to develop brand new applications which only work in IE6???

Nope, just not planning to spend loads on replacing multiple (badly developed in the 1st place) legacy applications.

[d000hg]

"weeks to test and roll out to all users" What are they talking about? Takes about 10 mins to download and instal.

If your concept of "test & roll out" is "bung it on production and see if people are happy" then that's a little concerning.

[lightng]

If your concept of "test & roll out" is "bung it on production and see if people are happy" then that's a little concerning.

Ah yes, "Continuous delapidation" - its a brand new concept for servicing the application life-cycle. My current place of work are ahead of the curve, they have been following that methodology for years.