Bye, Bye IE6. We Held On As Long As We Could.

What does ProtoShare have in common with YouTube? 37 Signals? The country of Norway? And many other software companies and websites? They have all dropped support for Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). Protoshare 3.5, released on 23 August, is not IE6 compliant; we’ve provided support and assistance during the transition. However, as of today, 15 September 2009, ProtoShare is officially dropping support for IE6. This should come as no surprise to most users as ProtoShare is a sophisticated web-based application, and IE6 simply does not support many of the fundamental features necessary to properly use the tool. And, no, this isn’t an anti-Microsoft thing. Even Microsoft itself is encouraging companies, and individuals, to upgrade. More proof? Do a search on Google  for “IE6″ or “Microsoft IE6″ and you’ll get the AdWords ad (at left), directing users to move to IE8, with the heading of “Ie6 No More.”

As many others have already commented on, developing for IE6 takes a lot of resources to keep up with the old-quirky-non-compliant-innovation-stifling browser that can’t support basics like CSS2. Instead of listing all the reason why we must move past IE6, here are some links to recent stories and posts on the matter.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/ie6-must-die/

http://www.bringdownie6.com/bring-down-ie-6.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/06/internet.explorer.six/index.html

As usual, ProtoShare continues to support and function in IE7 and IE8 for Review mode, and Firefox and Safari for both Review and Developer mode. Chrome support is still in beta.