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I personally prefer using Firefox.  It performs fairly quickly for my needs and it keeps up with the latest standards recommended by W3C.  I have no excuse.  I’m an IT professional and I keep my finger on the pulse.  Most people, however, don’t even know what a browser is, let alone have an awareness of the alternatives to Internet Explorer.  Well, to be fair, Internet Explorer 8 does a pretty good job at doing the right thing.  Version 7 still breaks where it shouldn’t.

So is this a matter of education?  Part of the solution is.  I try my best to get my clients to upgrade their browsers.  After doing so they all give feedback on how much faster and nicer their websites run.  Then there are the businesses who are still using Windows XP and never upgraded to Windows Vista.  The default browser on Windows XP is Internet Explorer 6.  Sometimes legacy software requires this browser to run, so the incentive to upgrade their browsers is little to none.  I’d say the disaster that was Windows Vista has been a major cause of why the ancient IE6 browser is still tearing out the hair of web developers.  The struggle to help clients understand why adding compatibility with this browser costs an extra 20% or more is one that isn’t always easily addressed.  By default, I at least add code that warns IE6 users that they should upgrade their browser.  Many major website such as YouTube are already sending this warning and making plans to remove support altogether.  Just imagine the bandwidth we would save worldwide if every website removed their IE6 (and 7) hacks.  Imagine the time and money saved if every future website didn’t need to take these browsers into their web building process.  Geek heaven.

I checked out the browser usage statistics at w3schools.  Below I’ve graphed the popularity of major browsers from January 2008 until last month.  In the past year, IE6 use has gone down 50%, which is great news.  IE8 has only just now surpassed it in use.  Here’s hoping that the release of Windows 7 will finally kick IE6 into the bucket.