Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Company drops IE support, saves $100K TechCrunch
quote:
Within a week it was painfully obvious that for every great idea we came up with we had to create equally terrible hacks to support IE7 or even IE8. Supporting variants of IE can easily increase design work by 30% to 100%, but complex features can easily double (or even triple) development time. It doesn’t take many developer salaries before this “IE tax” can cost you well over $100,000. But the money you lose as a start-up pales in comparison to the time and energy lost.
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 donoreoPremium
join:2002-05-30
North York, ON | That is great., I saw recently that on the weekends, IE is the #3 browser in use. |
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| reply to howardfine
This article title is a bit misleading. They never specified how much "they saved" by dumping support for IE. Taken from the quote you posted, the 30%-100% number they lifted from another website they linked to, and they say it *can* cost you over 100k. Nothing said it cost *them* 100k.
Going by their own graphs, 2/3 of their visitors are Mac users anyway, so dropping IE support is not going to impact them the same way it may impact other websites.
This article reads very much like a chest thumping "look at me bucking the corporate trend" more then anything.
I am sure it is probably saving them dev time when it comes to their product, but c'mon lets at least sell it for what it is.
Or, a well crafted April 1 joke.
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How lucky am I to have known someone who is so hard to say good-bye to. |
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 drewAutomaticPremium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
kudos:6 | My other concern is that it may save the company "100k" in new, forward looking work.
What about the cost of having all older applications/sites updated to work with the other browsers?
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flickr | Of faith, power and glory |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to The WeaseL
It follows what my company and some fellow developers state also, that IE requires about 20% to 50% extra time to make modern code work in IE.
quote:
Supporting variants of IE can easily increase design work by 30% to 100%, but complex features can easily double (or even triple) development time. It doesn’t take many developer salaries before this “IE tax” can cost you well over $100,000.
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| reply to howardfine
Bullshit. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| said by Razzy12345 :Bullshit.
If you can show me a working example of a CSS3 gradient in IE, then we'll talk. At least we'll talk a lot more than your one word response if you can show me an alternative. If you're able to do either, then I know you might have some knowledge of the subject. Otherwise, I'll assume you don't. |
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| You noticed he didn't say a word about IE9? And he linked to IE6 (10 year old browser)? Did you browse his clients website? What crappy design. Scroll bars inside the page? And LONG horizontal bars to scroll to the right? Bleh. |
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1 edit | quote:
And we don’t just mean IE6 or even IE7. We mean every version of Internet Explorer.
IE9 was not as good as FF4, and FF4 was not out when IE9 came around. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to Razzy12345
said by Razzy12345 : Did you browse his clients website? What crappy design. Scroll bars inside the page? And LONG horizontal bars to scroll to the right? Bleh.
Uh. A lot of people like that style. For some it's trendy. There are a couple of sites around that do nothing but feature that design style. |
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donoreoPremium
join:2002-05-30
North York, ON | reply to Razzy12345
said by Razzy12345 :You noticed he didn't say a word about IE9? And he linked to IE6 (10 year old browser)? Did you browse his clients website? What crappy design. Scroll bars inside the page? And LONG horizontal bars to scroll to the right? Bleh.
I do not see that. No left right scroll here. I do not like horizontal scrolling websites either.
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The irony of common sense, it is not that common.
I cannot deny anything I did not say.
A kitten dies every time someone uses "then" and "than" incorrectly.
I mock people who give their children odd spelling of names. |
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mikefxu
join:2004-10-05
Titusville, FL | reply to howardfine
Sorry Microsoft Windows doesn't support the technology used on 4ormat. Please try again after you have purchased an Apple iDevice.
I think your a limiting your portfolios viewership by not jiving with IE. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| said by mikefxu:Sorry Microsoft Windows doesn't support the technology used on 4ormat. You're right. That's why it's the worst browser on the planet. No other browser has an issue. quote:
I think your a limiting your portfolios viewership by not jiving with IE.
Not my portfolio but, iirc, the visitors are in a specialized group, that is, models and the entertainment industry, so it's not aimed at everyone. |
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 techjoePremium
join:2004-02-20
Warrenville, IL
kudos:1 | reply to The WeaseL
Lots of this.
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Baka wa shinanakya naoranai |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| @techjoe - I'll repeat what I said earlier. If you can show me a working example of a CSS3 gradient in IE, then I'd like to hear more from you than just three words. At least we'll talk a lot more than your three word response if you can show me an alternative. If you're able to do either, then I know you might have some knowledge of the subject. Otherwise, I'll assume you don't. |
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techjoePremium
join:2004-02-20
Warrenville, IL
kudos:1 | As a technical lead in a ~10,000 seat MS shop and having been around a block or two my three words stand. I'm not debating what works or does not. I use FF at work and home in fact as my primary browser.
I can assure you that in my shop it would cost well over 100k to drop IE. Well over. Most of our dev is in-house as well. And by building something tailored to a platform that the majority of the "average" users do not use there wouldn't be much to be gained anyway.
If it takes you 50% "extra" time to make your code work for what the majority of people use I'll debate the "extra" tag being used there. It sounds like you "could" save "if" your audience used the platform you can code more easily for.
In your niche "start-up" market to where your visitors are all mac users, or use lynx, or what-have-you, sure you may be able to save a buck. When you need to interface with the general public it is another story.
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Baka wa shinanakya naoranai |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| said by techjoe:I can assure you that in my shop it would cost well over 100k to drop IE.
That's not the point. quote:
And by building something tailored to a platform that the majority of the "average" users do not use there wouldn't be much to be gained anyway.
About 50% do not use IE. But I agree. You should never code to any platform. They don't in the article either. In fact, if you include mobile, where the majority of users are now heading, IE is a minor browser. It's practically unused in mobile at all. Real web developers code to standards, not to a browser. Only an amateur codes to a browser. That's why IE has lost half its market share over the last eight years. Poor standards support and incompatibility. It's why it takes more time and money to make things work in IE because IE either does not support current, modern standards and practices or it does it incorrectly. But as a tech lead for a MS shop, you know that already...don't you? Everyone who codes for the web does. So I'm sure you do, too. Right? Wait! I've got a question for you. Show me a CSS gradient that works in IE. |
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techjoePremium
join:2004-02-20
Warrenville, IL
kudos:1 | I never said IE supports any CSS function you want to rabble on about. I don't code for web; I explain basic IT fundamentals to "web coders" though all too often, if that counts for anything. 
The reality is that aside from an oddball start-up here or there you won't much large scale dropping of something with ~50% market share per your stated numbers. The site you cited (ha..) denies IE users sign-up. That's coding to a platform - every platform but one in fact. Perhaps that saved them a ton of time but as others have stated here, how much business would have been/could have been/was lost due to turning away visitors? That can quickly off-set that "30%-100% development savings".
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Baka wa shinanakya naoranai |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| said by techjoe:That's coding to a platform - every platform but one in fact.
We call that 'coding to standards', something Microsoft only recently discovered. quote:
Perhaps that saved them a ton of time
Let's not forget that's the whole point of the article. |
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tomdlgns
join:2003-03-21
Chicago, IL
kudos:1 | reply to howardfine
we use a few web based programs that, sadly, only work in IE.
while they do work in other browsers, they were designed for IE and certain things fail in other browsers.
we also have a web program that works in all browsers...IE, FF, safari, chrome, and it is very nice being able to use it at home where my primary browser is chrome. |
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