Re: IBM Web support

[Hans Boldt <boldt@xxxxxxxxxx>]

rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> not .97%, 99.97%  (original number was .03%)
>
> Granted, my numbers are off, (oh Lord I feel that I am getting dragged 
> into this void) but a vast majority of the people use Internet Explorer. 
> And if the features in that outweigh the benefits of supporting "obscure" 
> browsers then I can understand someone making a business decision either 
> way.
>
> When the bull elephants blow their horn even IBM has to scramble to 
> support their 'changes'.  Like when Adobe's latest viewer did not support 
> pdf's generated by a version of Infoprint Server.  IBM complained mightily 
> to Adobe, but scrambled out with ptf's quite quick.
>
> Rob Berendt

A couple of recent surveys show usage of IE 5 or 6 at around 93%. A 
couple of comments on that: First, there's no way to tell if a client is 
lying by spoofing the HTTP_USER_AGENT. In many cases, someone using a 
different browser may well spoof the user agent to get into a web site 
that only allows IE clients. And so the 93% may well be inflated by some 
amount. Second, does it make sense for any business to write off 7% (or 
more) of its potential customers? Sure, some can afford to. But 7% may 
very well give another business that competitive edge.

From my own experience with web site development, I know I'd love to 
take advantage of some particular features of CSS which work great in 
modern browsers, like Moz. Unfortunately, I can't use them since the 
dominant browsers have such poor support of CSS, and will likely never 
catch up. :-(

Cheers! Hans