Microsoft: IE6 support is about security, customer choice
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Web developers and IT professionals have recently launched a campaign to "Kill IE6," the eight-year-old Internet Explorer web browser that is now two versions out of date.
But Microsoft insists it must continue supporting the browser to protect customers' web security and because it committed to do so.
"Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product," said Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's IE general manager, on the IE blog.
Eric Lawrence, Microsoft's IE security manager, said web security is also a concern. Drooping support for IE6 would mean Microsoft would no longer issue security patches and updates for the browser.
But many web users have expressed a preference for IE6 and might continue to use an unpatched browser, leaving them vulnerable to malware attacks.
"Putting customers at risk isn't an option," Lawrence said on the IEInternals blog. "Having said that, we work hard at evangelizing new browser releases and getting folks to upgrade. While we still support IE6, there's no question that users on IE8 will have a more secure, reliable, and performant [sic] experience."
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