Old Browsers and security - Was Re: [thelist] Site review please

David Siedband david at calteg.org
Tue Jan 27 15:10:39 CST 2004


As far as forced upgrades:  A significant number of people use the web 
from machines where they don't have privileges to install new software. 
  University and public library terminals are good examples of this.

Refusing to display a site is a bit extreme...

--
Dave










On Jan 27, 2004, at 10:03 AM, Chris Hayes wrote:

> AFAIK it's not just hat ppl  _should_  be using updated browsers, they
> really _must_, with the significant advances in security, encryption 
> and
> cert handling wouldn't it be a public service to detect their browsers 
> and
> tell 'em where to get updated?  Just plain refuse to display them the 
> site?
>
> *ducks*
>
> :)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Scott Brady" <evolt at scottbrady.net>
> To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>; <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Site review please
>
>
>> Original Message:
>>> From: Thibaut Allender <mailing at capsule.org>
>>> it's a vicious circle... we can talk about this for ages
>>> my philosophy is : educate people, adapt site so that it's 
>>> accessible,
>>> but don't correct every old browser bug... let them die slowly, don't
>>> encourage the use of dinosaurs...
>>
>> I agree.  However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't ignore any 
>> browser
> that's older than a year. It doesn't hurt to test in Netscape 6 or 7,
> especially if your site's stats show them to be a decent percentage of 
> your
> audience.
>>
>> In my most recent client's site, "Netscape" browsers made up 6.7% of 
>> all
> visits (I'm assuming that "Mozilla" is included in the "Other" 
> category,
> which is only 4.4%) in January.  Almost 50% of the Netscape visits 
> (about
> 3.3% of all visits) were Netscape 6 (it says Netscape 5, so I'm 
> assuming
> that means 6 -- stupid versioning system of Netscape), 31% of Netscape 
> were
> Netscape 7.  Together those account for more than all of Mozilla.
>>
>> Older versions of Netscape are far less significant in our 
>> statistics, so
> we don't even bother testing in NS4.
>>
>>> btw, visiting your site with netscape 4 is funny, there's a strange
>>> redirection making browser loop on the first page (nice to put some
>>> servers down ;)
>>
>> For my own site, thanks for pointing out the problem.  I had initially
> tested the "low version" of the page in the past and it worked fine. I 
> seem
> to have made a change in the stylesheet without testing NS4 that 
> caused that
> loop.  Strange.  It's fixed now.
>>
>> ----------------------------
>> Scott Brady
>> http://www.scottbrady.net/
>>
>>
>> -- 
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>
> -- 
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>



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