My point is that it costs you no extra time, during the planning phase, to bear in mind how your website will degrade for older browsers. This is essential knowledge for all coders. Remember, we already have to consider cross browser compatibility.

Resist the temptation to needlessly filter and ring-fence your audience. If you feel you can justify dropping IE6, isn’t it hypocritical to not also drop support for Opera, Flock and other small browsers?

http://jreject.turnwheel.com/

If Google no longer supports IE6 (January 2010), what makes you think a small shop or sole proprietor can? I don’t think it is laziness, I would argue that it is a necessity. In order to offer a service for a cost the client won’t scoff at, you have to draw the line.

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/modern-browsers-for-modern-applications.html

“I heard that somewhere around 40% of browsers still in use are IE6… why do people hesitate to update?”

I don’t think it is that high. I’ll look around for a stat. But on my site, it is more like 4-6%.

sure, it’s a give and take, but the web is moving away from it’s outdated forms.

Writing valid and semantic code is the easiest way to make your product accessible to the largest possible audience. That said, I am an equally strong proponent of “progressive enhancement” and employing the latest generation of HTML5 & CSS3 features.

It has always been best practice to use the most update version of coding languages – e.g. HTML5 & CSS3. This is due to the fact that they usually afford you instant backwards compatibility for the vast majority of their features.

Therefore, denouncing support for IE6 does nothing but proclaim your own laziness.

(Don’t get me wrong; I hate IE6 as much as the rest of the web community. But when it costs us nothing to support it, we have no right to demand its exclusion.)

Have a great weekend!