I was very pleased to see that the decrepit web browser, IE6, is finally approaching its demise. We web developers have been suffering with coding for this Beleaguered Bucket of Bogusness for years now. Now the idea of dumping it has taken on more urgency, as its security flaws were a key element in cyberattacks (traced to Chinese sources) on several large sites, most notably Google. Now whole countries seem to be urging the removal of IE6, with England and Germany taking the lead. Web developers all over the world are celebrating!
There seem to be two groups that still use this slow, buggy, graphically-challenged, security-risk-riddled browser: poor innocent folks who have no idea they even have it, (Hi, Mom!) and corporate intranets who, sadly, built huge important company applications that won’t work on any other browser. For the first group, it’s fairly easy to get rid of IE6, you simply upgrade – users are generally prompted to do that . Even I will admit that IE8 is a pretty decent browser – though it’s not in the class of Firefox or Chrome, I’d say it’s about as good as Safari by now.
For the second group, they’re sunk: to re-write their applications from top-to-bottom would be every coder’s unending nightmare. So they have to quietly limp along and pray that no one clicks on those malware sites that set cyberattacks ablaze. Let’s have a moment of silence in honor of those poor schmucks supporting such systems.
So gradually, my dream of being able to totally ignore IE6 is coming true! Another positive development is the significant waning of sites that use the dreaded Irritating Flash Intro Page. After much keening and wailing, site owners finally became aware that no matter how gosh-darn-impressive these look to the sales staff, site visitors hate them, and they’re terrible for SEO. Flash is still in wide usage, but its applications have at least become more mature and subtle.
Yet there are still those who have the really goofy Flash splash page that runs nice and long, just enough to assure that the user is motivated to click away to some other site. And there’s the very annoying phenomenon of sudden music foisted upon the unwitting visitor. Fortunately, this has mostly disappeared except amongst certain special populations. Fancy restaurants and top chefs, I’m talking to you on both counts! 
With the fanciest restaurants, the probability of having unnecessary bad Flash approaches 100%. I can only surmise that Flash-splash-loving graphic designers and chef-restaurateurs must be cut from the same cloth.
Here’s to a world with no IE6 and no Flash intros! Huzzah!