ie IE8 - four years old ...at what point should we developers kill it off?&#33

[GreatMarkO]

This next week will mark the 4th birthday of Internet Explorer 8... which in today's fast changing web browser landscape is pretty old indeed!

Some companies have already discontinued support for IE8, such as Google which dropped IE8 support across their range of services (YouTube, Gmail, Picasa, Docs, Drive, Blogger, etc) back in November 2012

Source: http://googleappsupd...s-internet.html

- which I think was a great move! ...but sadly, despite that being four months ago now, very few other big sites appear to have yet followed suit!

So I'm curious to know what other web developer's current stance is on IE8?

We're contemplating at what point to officially stop supporting IE8 for our own web-based app/service. We'd love to drop it now as it holds back what we can do, but given that Windows XP is still very popular - particularly in corporate environments (and remains supported by Microsoft until next 2014!), and the highest version of IE that Windows XP users is only IE8... we're in two minds as to just when to no longer support IE8 (yes, or course XP users could just use another, more modern, browser instead of IE8 - but not if they're in a corporate environment that forces them to use XP + IE8, etc)

So fellow web developers - Are you still maintaining IE8 compatibility with your web sites/apps/services? ...or given the now global availability of IE10 for Windows 7 (and later), have you already dropped, or are planning to drop IE8 support in the near future?

[togermano]

unfort we are screwed because microsoft never made ie9 for xp they should of atleast ported the engine doesnt have to be with the new graphics accelerator

[spaceelf]

Some companies have already discontinued support for IE8, such as Google which dropped IE8 support across their range of services (YouTube, Gmail, Picasa, Docs, Drive, Blogger, etc) back in November 2012

Source: http://googleappsupd...s-internet.html

- which I think was a great move! ...but sadly, despite that being four months ago now, very few other big sites appear to have yet followed suit!

Although I'm no web developer, I'm not sure 'one' equates to 'some'

I've seen noone else drop IE8 support.

And since developers seem to be afraid of ever alienating anyone I don't expect to see more people drop IE8 support until MS drops XP support.

[ZakO]

For personal sites we don't support/test IE8 but for client sites we always support IE8. Potentially losing the client 10-12% of business isn't really acceptable.

[GreatMarkO]

Although I'm no web developer, I'm not sure 'one' equates to 'some'

There are others besides Google (example: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_2.4_release_notes#Requirements), but I agree they are currently limited in number, and Google is perhaps the most notable example to date!

I agree with you that developers are nervous about dropping IE8 support in case it alienates certain users, which is why I'm keen to "gauge" what other developer's plans are for their continued IE8 support?

It's the whole IE6 debate again - which Microsoft have stated that they will support until Windows XP SP3 support ends, meaning IE6 will still be officially supported until 2014, 13 years after its release!

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8196242.stm

Now, I think there are now very few sites/web apps/services that still maintain any sort of IE6 compatibility, despite Microsoft still officially supporting IE6 until next year!! ...so I would hope that the argument that developers should continue to support a browser until its vendor's own support ends, wouldn't necessarily need to apply to IE8 (because it certainly didn't with IE6!)

[yowanvista]

unfort we are screwed because microsoft never made ie9 for xp they should of atleast ported the engine doesnt have to be with the new graphics accelerator

Why should they have ported IE9 to XP? Windows XP was already in extended support when IE9 was released, that basically meant that no features would be backported to that dated OS. Had XP mainstream support ended one month earlier it wouldn't even have obtained IE8 and would be still stuck with IE7.

IE9 requires a platform upgrade, that would have required Microsoft to port the entire graphics library including Direct3D, DirectWrite along with a bunch of DX10+ stuff to XP, that was not feasible since XP was already too dated.

[BajiRav]

IE8 won't die this fast. I am working on a client project and one of our target configs is Vista + IE8! I felt sad when I read that the first time. :( I wish companies upgraded faster but...

On the other hand Google has really stopped caring about browsers besides Chrome so they are not really a gold standard in this matter.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Seeing as XP is still widely used both by home users and corporates: Not yet!

[GreatMarkO]

for client sites we always support IE8. Potentially losing the client 10-12% of business isn't really acceptable.

I share your concerns! - but it is a vicious circle! - I mean, as long as client's don't update their browsers, developers feel they have to continue to support them... but then when developers continue to support old browsers, client's then don't see any real need/urgency to update their browsers! ...and so it goes on!

That's why I admire Google for taking a stand at the end of last year and no longer supporting IE8 - which will have undoubtedly prompted users to update their browser/switch to a more modern browser!

I wonder if developers who have dropped support for IE8 have actually seen any real noticeable loss/decrease of clients/customers though? ...or after some initial grumbling that they have to update their browser, do clients/customers generally accept that fact?!

[GreatMarkO]

IE8 won't die this fast. I am working on a client project and one of our target configs is Vista + IE8! I felt sad when I read that the first time. :( I wish companies upgraded faster but...

At least with Vista you CAN run IE9... so maintaining IE8 support I would have thought would have been less of an issue (not to mention more work!) for you?

You're right - IE8 won't die this fast, just as long as us developers continue supporting it! ...but I agree with you that it's also the companies that are to blame! ...in fact, I'd go one step further and say it's Microsoft that are to primarily to blame, for continuing to support very old/obsolete browsers - because they are only really pandering to large companies/corporations with nervous IT departments who aren't keen on rolling out newer versions of IE.

If Microsoft made a stand and ended support for such browsers sooner, corporations would then be more inclined to roll out updated IE browsers, meaning developers can then concentrate on developing better apps/sites that take advantage of newer standards/technologies rather than having to spend time maintaining backwards compatibility with out-dated browsers!

[BajiRav]

At least with Vista you CAN run IE9... so maintaining IE8 support I would have thought would have been less of an issue (not to mention more work!) for you?

You're right - IE8 won't die this fast, just as long as us developers continue supporting it! ...but I agree with you that it's also the companies that are to blame! ...in fact, I'd go one step further and say it's Microsoft that are to primarily to blame, for continuing to support very old/obsolete browsers - because they are only really pandering to large companies/corporations with nervous IT departments who aren't keen on rolling out newer versions of IE.

If Microsoft made a stand and ended support for such browsers sooner, corporations would then be more inclined to roll out updated IE browsers, meaning developers can then concentrate on developing better apps/sites that take advantage of newer standards/technologies rather than having to spend time maintaining backwards compatibility with out-dated browsers!

The biggest problem with IE8 is performance. We don't care much about fancy CSS effects and others can be worked around. The rendering speed and JavaScript engine on the ther hand are a real problem.

[Detection]

"IE8 - four years old ...at what point should we developers kill it off?!"

4 years ago.

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Actually just installed XP on an old P4 and IE8 was the only version of IE that didn't crash after 20 seconds

[Growled Member]

We use Chrome on our XP boxes at work. IE can live or die, it doesn't matter to us.