FINALLY somebody took a stand...

[Darth Mandarb]

This is so brilliant... I just had to share it!

Kogan institutes an IE7 tax

It shouldn't be just for IE7.  It should be for the entirety of Internet Suxplorer.

Now if only somebody with a bit more clout would follow suit!!

[Radiant]

Wow, excellent idea.

Actually, some of our customers in the past year were still stuck on IE6. Imagine!

[Domino]

Firefox for the Win!! I have always hated Internet Explorer with a passion and refuse to use it. I'd rather have jumper cables attached to my nipples instead. 

[CaptainD]

I'd rather have jumper cables attached to my nipples instead. 

What, AGAIN?!  That really didn't end so well for you last time. 

[Snake]

That's hilarious. What a good laugh that is, Darth XD

I was an Opera fanboy from 2001 (...or so. Someone on here raved about it being the best) until the year before last when I finally installed Google Chrome. The main reason being was that Opera decided to start crashing every fucking 5 minutes for no apparent reason. It went from no problems what-so-ever to pissing me off on a daily basis.

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm just happy somebody finally did something so bold.  Internet Explorer is retarding the growth of web development (with its inability to follow W3C standards) because it still enjoys a HUGE chunk of the market (though this is ONLY because it comes with the computers people are buying and they don't know to upgrade).

My problem is the same as anybody in web-development.  I was forced to spend HOURS "making it work in IE" when it works perfectly in real browsers first time around.  So the logic of this is perfect.  "You IE people are costing me money so you're going to pay me back for having to make it work in your inferior web-browsing choice!"  I find that brilliant beyond words.  Don't make the smart people (who use real browsers) suffer the cost of development that IE costs.  Make the morons using IE pay for it.  If every site did this we could completely abolish IE.  Make IE no longer "free" to use.  It's just brilliant.

I have been listening to developers for over a decade saying, "They're supposed to be fixing it with the next version..."  I stopped saying that after IE7.  Microsoft isn't going to fix their piece of shit.  They are doing it intentionally because they think they know better and that it should be their way.  It just needs to die.  All sites I'm developing on my own do not support IE.  They "work" in IE but if they don't look good or function exactly the same I don't care.  I put a note on there that tells the morons "You're using Internet Explorer which this site doesn't support." and a small explanation with links to the real browsers.

[kconan]

  Cool, thats a ballsy move.  Whatever sales are lost from a small handful of annoyed customers will be made up for in all the IT guys who flock to that site.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Great idea, I swap between chrome and firefox.

[m0ds]

I put a note on there that tells the morons "You're using Internet Explorer which this site doesn't support." and a small explanation with links to the real browsers.

Good point, is there a simple-ish html/java/css etc way to make that pop up and warn for IE users? I can't find much on Google, not sure what to search for exactly. My site is all messed up in IE though so it'd be useful.

[monkey0506]

It's relatively simple in JavaScript.

Or if your site is using PHP and you hate JavaScript, check out $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] and/or get_browser.

P.S. Learn how to Google, dang.

[Ghost]

The "tax message" is ballsy and hilarious. I think this is a very good idea- though I admit that I am still using IE (and Chrome, in tandem). Don't shoot me!

[InCreator]

The main reason being was that Opera decided to start crashing every fucking 5 minutes for no apparent reason. It went from no problems what-so-ever to pissing me off on a daily basis.

I have same issue on work machine with Firefox. I'm quite sure it's ATI card problem (and maybe flash player).
Chrome works perfectly.

At home, FF works like wonder (Nvidia card) aside rare closed-but-staying-resident-in-memory issue that has been in Firefox since version 3 or so.

I like both, but I have no love for Safari: It's weird and hard-to-use piece of trash. I wish I could use Chrome or FF on my iPad.

[WHAM]

Sooo... When's a tax coming in to take money for using older versions of Firefox, Chrome, Netscape Navigator etc?

Oh, oh, maybe we should start adding a similiar tax to people who play online games with slow internet connections for always lagging up the games for everybody! And for people playing games on old CRT monitors, as we need to ensure the games look good on those as well as on the more modern LCD / TFT / LED panel monitors! And maybe we should tax people who have computers over 3 years old, as software manufacturers in general need to take into account older and slower computers, and thus most of them cannot and will not make the most of modern technology!

[Kastchey]

I don't think that's a good comparison, WHAM. You're trying to merge two completely different markets.

Game developers optimize their products for older machines because the lower system requirements are, the more people will buy their games. If they didn't optimize the game, the customers would have to purchase new machines to run it. There's no other choice but to optimize the graphics.
People who use outdated browsers can just download and install a new one for free. And because some of them won't for who knows what reason, the cost of making any web application is much higher since every project leader will want it compatible with all browsers, including those the use of which does not make sense at all.

[Khris]

Love it.
I made a site for a private practice recently and even made sure it would work just fine in IE 8. When they looked at it, it was broken: they still use IE 6!

[EchosofNezhyt]

Love it.
I made a site for a private practice recently and even made sure it would work just fine in IE 8. When they looked at it, it was broken: they still use IE 6!

Lawlz. Thats funny.

[Snake]

I really hope this starts some sort of revolution. It's been a long time coming.

@InCreator
I never gave fire fox a real chance... really not too sure why. I've used it in Linux but just for visiting here or installing chrome. I'd like to give Netscape a try only because the look and name has some nostalgic value.

@WHAM
I think you're going a little overboard there
I almost see your point in saying where this could have been handled differently, but it's also a great way to show those people who don't know much about computers, let
alone their BROWSER being the reason some web pages don't look right, that there are other options out there than the default internet explorer. They are told of the time it takes to make it work and gives them an option for modern browsers.

[Darth Mandarb]

Good point, is there a simple-ish html/java/css etc way to make that pop up and warn for IE users? I can't find much on Google, not sure what to search for exactly. My site is all messed up in IE though so it'd be useful.

Yeah mine is a combination of Coldfusion/Javascript that accomplishes this.  However I own the domain: www . internetsuxplorer . com and (which I'm developing now) that will offer people a small javascript snippet they can put on their site which will detect their visitor's USER_AGENT and, if IE, give them the message/note/popup (customizable).  I really hope this takes off 'cause it's time for IE to die!  It's been slowly and painfully losing ground (which is good) but now it just needs to die.

@WHAM - I see what you're trying to say but I just don't see it as "connected" to the IE issue.  I (until recently) was using a 5 year old computer that would not play any modern games (I don't really play games anyway so there just wasn't a need to upgrade for me; it did what I needed it to do).  So those games weren't developed to work on my machine at all.  Modern game developers (given the open architecture of the PC market) have to account for a RIDICULOUS number of variations to ensure their games work but they don't worry about 5-10 year old computers.  The web should be the same way in regards to IE.

@Khris - that's even worse!!  IE6??  Seriously?  There is simply NO [acceptable] reason for ANYbody (company or personal) to still be using IE6.  That's just beyond stupid.

@Snake/Increator - I was a DIEHARD Firefoxer for years.  Until Chrome hit the scene.  Chrome is the best browser available.  Lightest weight, most standards compliant, and fastest.  Firefox is still MILES ahead of IE but it's become a fat cow (memory hog) and over-bloated with features nobody uses or wants.  There are still some things Firefox does better than chrome (like their CSS3 color ramps/gradiations) but when using transitions Chrome is still much smoother so I can forgive the slightly less capable gradiations for smoother animations.

[Monsieur OUXX]

From the page's comments, and from WHAM comments, I can see that people who are hostile to that measure don't get the point :

- It's not about blaming people for using IE7 (it's not against customers), it's about the huge amount of time and money spent in making stuff compatible with IE7 (the issue rests on industry's side). That time and money are wasted for no reason, as: 1) Users could just upgrade to IE8 or use other browsers, 2) There is no good reason for IE7 to sabotage most standards except for the lack of interest of MS into complying.

- No need to use cutting-edge tech to experience compatibility issues on IE7. It ignores even some of the most basic W3 recommendations.

So, rather than a punishment, this tax is an incentive for people to just stop using a faulty product, that causes more issues that it offers services.

PS: Being the statist that I am, I'd rather have the government make companies pay for their choice of imposing obsolete technologies to the rest of the industry. Just like there are standards on cars driving on the streets (they have to be homologated first), there should be the same on Web Browsers: No standard compliance = no import authorization -- or higher taxes for those who use them.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Good point, is there a simple-ish html/java/css etc way to make that pop up and warn for IE users? I can't find much on Google, not sure what to search for exactly. My site is all messed up in IE though so it'd be useful.

Yeah mine is a combination of Coldfusion/Javascript that accomplishes this.  However I own the domain: www . internetsuxplorer . com and (which I'm developing now) that will offer people a small javascript snippet they can put on their site which will detect their visitor's USER_AGENT and, if IE, give them the message/note/popup (customizable).  I really hope this takes off 'cause it's time for IE to die!  It's been slowly and painfully losing ground (which is good) but now it just needs to die.

@WHAM - I see what you're trying to say but I just don't see it as "connected" to the IE issue.  I (until recently) was using a 5 year old computer that would not play any modern games (I don't really play games anyway so there just wasn't a need to upgrade for me; it did what I needed it to do).  So those games weren't developed to work on my machine at all.  Modern game developers (given the open architecture of the PC market) have to account for a RIDICULOUS number of variations to ensure their games work but they don't worry about 5-10 year old computers.  The web should be the same way in regards to IE.

@Khris - that's even worse!!  IE6??  Seriously?  There is simply NO [acceptable] reason for ANYbody (company or personal) to still be using IE6.  That's just beyond stupid.

@Snake/Increator - I was a DIEHARD Firefoxer for years.  Until Chrome hit the scene.  Chrome is the best browser available.  Lightest weight, most standards compliant, and fastest.  Firefox is still MILES ahead of IE but it's become a fat cow (memory hog) and over-bloated with features nobody uses or wants.  There are still some things Firefox does better than chrome (like their CSS3 color ramps/gradiations) but when using transitions Chrome is still much smoother so I can forgive the slightly less capable gradiations for smoother animations.

Yeah I loved firefox untill chrome hit, Then I slowly used it more and more.