Re: compatibility with IE6 on windows

It is very unwise to drop support for Internet Explorer 6 on the
Ubuntu web site. A major goal of Ubuntu is to reach out to Windows
users. People viewing the Ubuntu site in IE6 will go away thinking
"Ubuntu sucks" because it doesn't look nice in their browser. These
same people often don't know what a web browser is, let alone that
they are using IE6.

On a practical note, IE6 users represent about 25% of all Internet
users [1] [2], which is more than all versions of Firefox combined.
Furthermore, there is no pressing need for people to upgrade because
Microsoft will support IE6 with security updates, etc. until July 13,
2010 [3]. I suggest that Ubuntu continue supporting IE6 on its
website until at least that date.

Asking people to use a different browser is not an option because many
people will view the Ubuntu web site from work where their employer
defines exactly what they can and cannot install. At many workplaces,
IE6 is the only browser available. I witnessed this first-hand when a
job agency said they couldn't read my resume; I had sent as XHTML/1.1
it with a .xhtml extension and IE6 refuses to open
application/xml+xhtml documents.

The Ubuntu website is not the place to be forcing people to change
browsers. If the Ubuntu community wants to remain inclusive, we must
support browsers with significant usage shares.

Denver
http://ossguy.com/

1. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer#Market_share_by_year_and_version
3. http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps/#Internet_Explorer

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 6:09 AM, welias.developer :-)
<welias@oroverdedigital.com.ar> wrote:
> I disagree.
> IE6 is 7 years old. IE7 is 4 years old. I think it should be for
> compatibility standards. With that is compatible with IE7 and Firefox 2
> is fine. In addition both IE and Firefox already have newer versions:
> IE8 and Firefox 3. People who use IE6 are irresponsible, because it is
> totally unsafe.
>
> Greetings
>
> Walter
>> Hi!
>> Though visiting the ubuntu.com website is possible with windows and Internet Explorer 6 the menus and especialy the fridge cant be used or viewed. I can understand if you don't can support IE5 since it is so old but there is still alot of people using IE6 so please check the compatibility against IE6 as well when you develop pages and the site. Windows users still might want to follow the project though they haven't taken the step over to linux yet. Especialy since ubuntu is the most popular and biggest desktop linux distro in the world.
>>
>> Thanks in advance looking forward to be able to read about ubuntu again.
>> \Peter

--
Ubuntu-news-team mailing list
Ubuntu-news-team@lists.ubuntu.com
Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news-team