IE6, sorry it's just not working out

With IE8 on the verge of release in the next month or two, I'm probably not the only developer in the world who can't help but think this may actually be the beginning of something good. There'll (hopefully) be a lot less headaches and fewer wasted hours fixing CSS problems. I for one am looking forward to the day when I can create a page layout and not cringe when I launch Internet Explorer.

There is one draw back to this lovely prospect and that is we now have three versions of Internet Explorer in which we must test sites. At work, we still code and debug to ensure sites look and act like they do in standards compliant browsers, because like it or not, people still use IE6.

Until today I was worried that when IE8 was released, I would just have another browser to add to my testing list. My worry disappeared this afternoon when it was decided that we as a company will be stopping actively supporting IE6 in future developments. That is not to say we are going to leave IE6 users in the dark, we're just going to use the Transcendent CSS approach of giving IE6 users a basic user experience and concentrate on the really cool stuff for more modern browsers.

Looking to the future this has got me really excited. As I need to concentrate less on IE6 support, I can start to concentrate on, and implement more advanced CSS and using it to it's full potential. I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can push myself in the coming months...

RIP IE6, you will be dearly missed snigger