"Internet explorer, what a wonderful phrase. Internet explorer - ain't no passing craze. It will exist, until the end of dayyyyyyys."
So you're coding like a beast or designing like a boss and someone mentions Internet Explorer. Your first though is 'oh dear', your next is 'which one’.
You see when alternative browsers like Firefox and Safari are updated, they are updated. The old version is gone. Bye bye, cheerio. You’re expected to use the new version. Sometimes, you don’t even know they’ve been updated.
Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Cos 7 8 9?!
Nope, because 7 was supposed to replace it!
Not so with Internet Explorer, it comes in many flavours and these flavours tent to stick around - I’m talking primarily about XP (still in use by a large number of home users and most non-IT orientated businesses) - the best you can do is Internet Explorer 8. Now, without looking I can’t tell you what was special about 8 that separated it from 6 or 7. Faster and more secure?
The Microsoft website doesn’t work in Internet Explorer 6 or 7 anymore. It completely breaks. The technology for web development has moved on.
So do you ignore the person that mentioned Internet Explorer? Impossible.
Can you get them to switch to other browser? Difficult.
Ask their company to upgrade to Apple products? Unlikely.
So you accommodate them, for now…but this is definitely the last, absolutely the last time. Oh…that fix worked, but it's a hollow victory as accommodating older browsers makes them feel like they're still welcome at the party.
Enjoy the internet, use a modern browser.