Recently, there’s been an increasing emphasis and enterprise-organized uprising focused on eliminating IE6 from the world as quickly as possible. For the unaware, supporting this outdated browser is expensive and limits our creative abilities when it comes to web development.

Mashable has summarized Microsoft’s position that IE6 cannot die until Windows XP dies, even though Microsoft strongly encourages users to upgrade.

We recognize that IE6 was the best browser on the market when released — in 2001. We, also understand that many organizations have invested significantly, buying and building apps on proprietary, non-forward compatible technology such as ActiveX or extensions to IE6. While extensions are not inherently evil, they have a tendency to lock you into a single-vendor solution, which may not be supported in future versions of their product, in this case IE7 and later.

This is one of the reasons that we’re proponents of open source software. We build web applications using free and open source works such as Dojo, which we help adapt and update for new browsers as they are released, to prevent getting stuck with untenable solutions. If you’re looking to unshackle yourself from the confines of an IE6-strapped web application and empower your users to participate in the joys of modern-day web browsing, contact SitePen for a free 30-minute consultation today.