14 DAY TRIAL // Thanksgiving is here, at least for one particular country in the world. Americans get together with their families to celebrate and simply spend some time all in the same place.
But for anyone with even the slightest tech inclinations, any holiday with the family means fixing everyone's computers. Few look forward to this, but someone has to remove the layers of toolbars that have grown back from last year.
So, if you're going to do it anyway, why not go all the way. That's the idea behind a 'movement' that is picking up Steam, "Update Your Parents’ Browser Day" on November 25.
The idea started at The Atlantic, but has been picked up by others. In fact, even Microsoft has gotten behind this and encourages people to help their parents get rid of Internet Explorer 6. Of course, Microsoft thinks Internet Explorer 8 or 9 will do.
The thing is, as with any change, your parents might not like it, so Microsoft has some suggestions about the best time to do it.
"When they’re distracted by grilling you about when you’re going to get a real job, when you’re going to settle down, and when you’re going to give them grandchildren," was the best suggestion.
Of course, if you're getting rid of Internet Explorer 6, you might as well install a modern browser like Firefox or Google Chrome, since these actually run on Windows XP, unlike Internet Explorer 9.
But this is not just about Internet Explorer 6, few people are running it at this point. Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 or Firefox 3.5 or even an older Chrome that doesn't automatically update is almost as bad.
Having an updated browser is more than just support for things like HTML5, CSS3 or WebGL, it's first and foremost about security. And it's exactly the type of users that don't update they're browsers that are at the biggest risk.