[thelist] old browsers (was How important is height when using tables?)

[Diane Haugen]

At 12:51 PM -0300 7/30/04, Sarah Sweeney wrote:

>TV producers don't make their shows "compatible" with old black and 
>white TVs just because some people still have them. Why should we 
>produce websites for users who still have ancient (in the computer 
>world) browsers?
>
>Upgrading a browser is fairly easy to do, even for not-so-savvy 
>computer users. Learning how to use the upgraded version of a 
>browser is also not very difficult.


Speaking as one of those people who refuses to upgrade a browser, it 
goes beyond being easy and learning new stuff. There is no such thing 
as an easy upgrade to anything. I have downloaded newer additions of 
browsers and they make the rest of my software act quirky, or they 
take an obscene amount of memory, or they automatically add something 
someone things is useful, but I find highly annoying and very 
difficult to get rid of or turn off.

I have the choice of using OS X or classic on my iMac, but I stick 
with the classic because my software works better with classic, or 
not at all on OS X. My iMac came with one of the first versions of OS 
X and I never use early versions of any software.  When I do finally 
decide to make the switch to OS X, it will because I have bought a 
new iMac and I will still be able to use my old software on my 
existing machine. It's easy to sing the song of "leave the 
curmudgeons in the dust" when you can rely upon an employer to pay 
for the latest and greatest.

Coddling?  I think not. I don't ask to be coddled.  I do refuse to go 
to web sites which I can't access. It's that simple. And  you know 
what?  I don't think I've missed much.

I don't expect many people to agree with me, but since there are 
evidetntly a lot of people out there besides me who are resisting 
browser upgrades, please don't assume the reasons we don't upgrade 
are obvious, like it's too much trouble to download an upgrade.

As for expecting TV stations to program for my old black and white 
TV, I got rid of ALL of my televisions sets years ago.  So clearly I 
am pretty dependent upon the web and my ancient browser to know what 
the world's doing.  :>

Diane Haugen

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Diane Haugen
Ration Health Care Costs, Not Care
http://www.reducehealthcarecosts.com
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