Microsoft: Dump IE6, Upgrade to IE8

Believe or not, but Microsoft is right in line with companies and governmental organizations that advice Internet Explorer 6 users to dump the decade-old browser. In fact, the Redmond company has always labored to convince customers to embrace the latest iterations of its products, and with the latest move the software giant reinforces this position. Microsoft underlines that Internet Explorer 8 is superior in every way to IE6, from security to modern web standards support, and as such a much better choice.

In January, Microsoft rushed to patch an IE6 Critical vulnerability with the release of an out-of-band security bulletin which served as one of the vectors in targeted attacks against US-based companies. Google was one of the companies involved, accusing the theft of intellectual property and hacking attempts of Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, and also one of the companies which subsequently announced that it was dropping support for IE6. Additional organizations have recommended that users dump IE6.

“You may have recently heard about organizations including Google recommending that people update their browsers and move off older versions, such as the nearly decade-old Internet Explorer 6. Think about what technology and the Internet were like in the year 2000 – and consider how they’ve evolved since then. In 2000, “phishing” was something that happened at the lake, not online. There was no social networking, no RSS feeds, and no real blogs. It was a different time – and people’s browsing needs were different. Today’s Internet calls for more,” stated Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team.

“We support this recommendation to move off Internet Explorer 6. Modern browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 bring benefits for customers and developers alike. We realize there are some customers today who depend on Internet Explorer 6, and while we continue to support them through the lifecycle of the product, we are also investing in the tools and training to help them upgrade as well,” LeBlanc added.

Microsoft has, of course, been accused on numerous occasions that it is not doing enough to force customers off IE6. The company has taken fire for continuing to support Internet Explorer 6. However, users must understand that the software giant is committed to supporting Windows XP until 2014, and all components of the OS, including IE6. Although cutting support for IE6 might seem like the right catalyst for users to upgrade, Microsoft needs to continue offering support for XP, with all the downsides of this situation. After all, some 20% of the world’s browser users are still running IE6 on XP, and cannot simply be left hand out to dry.

Ultimately, the choice lies with Windows customers. Microsoft is providing Internet Explorer 8 as a free download, but of course there are also additional alternatives.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).

Firefox 3.6 Final for Windows is available for download here.

Google Chrome 4.0 Stable is available for download here.

The latest release of Opera 10 is available for download here.