[thelist] older browsers - why are people still using them?

Ray Hill lists at prydain.com
Tue Dec 11 16:09:21 CST 2001


> Agreed - like you wouldn't accept today to have an *operator* plug
> you to the right party everytime you pick up the telephone... when
> the technology evolved - everybody evolved.

Funny.  When I plug in my ancient, old rotary telephone, it appears to
still work just fine for 95% of the calls I might want to make.  I
don't get any messges telling me that I have to upgrade to a newer,
fancier phone in order to call my folks or find out the hours of the
local market.  In fact, the phone services that *do* require touch
tone almost always have a one-on-one service as a backup for rotary
phone users, or those who otherwise can't deal with the touch tone
phone tree.

Yes, most people did buy the newer phones.  But the important thing is
that the old ones have still been supported all along.  Doing
otherwise just wouldn't make any sense.  Especially when you consider
the inherent diversity of the *world* wide web.



> which is in complete contradiction to what the web is.  It's
> not about compliancy - it's just about money - whereas we, as
> the developing community, we code backward - instead of having
> an easier life - it's not as if I have my regular 2 days off
> a week and a regular income, or a regular life or... whatever
> other regular activities that people outside the web have.

<twitch>  Are you saying that the web is just about money??  To whom?
To the developer who makes a living at it, maybe.  But to the vast
majority of the people who use it, the web is about communication and
information.  Sure, your job might be to make money off of these
people.  But in any business, you're only going to succeed if you do
your best to fulfil the needs of your target market.

If you run your business (any business) by telling your customers that
you know what's best, and in order to help you make money they'll have
to change x, y and z about their existing habits, chances are your
customer is going to brush you off and look for a competitor who puts
the customer's needs before the business' wants.

As for the slings and arrows that we web developers have to suffer in
order to produce sites that work well on older browsers, sure it's
extra work.  But the simple fact of the matter is that it's part of
the job.  Every industry has its unattractive aspects.  That's why
they call it work.  And especially now, with so many web developers
living off of unemployment in the dry job market, the law of supply
and demand dictates that if you're not happy with the amount of work
you have to do to create quality work, there are a dozen other people
who would be glad to take that job off your hands, and probably
another half dozen who want to try and figure out a way to automate
your tasks to alleviate the extra work in te first place.

Saying that we should stop designing for older browsers because we're
over worked makes no sense.  If we stop designing for older browser,
it should be because it's the right thing to do.  If we're over
worked, we should be looking for ways to make our work more efficient,
or addressing the staffing issues to get more help completing the
work.  They're two separate issues.



--ray





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