76 browsers, do you hold live?

If you are a developer, you may soon have to face up to 76 browsers to develop.

Even if it is a step back, IE6 is already out of sight of most people, said it has died. What about IE7? CSS has become less problematic and has supported PNG images, but the JavaScript engine problem remains a blockbuster. And IE8 is more functions than IE7 to add local storage, but IE8 will also accompany us for a long time.

The tragedy of IE6 has lasted for 4 of years, and the next 9 years will be the cup of IE8. XP has not been able to support IE9, but Firefox and Chrome have already supported XP. But do you think this is the most tragic? No, No.

How many browsers are you going to support in the future?

In fact, if only five versions, it is acceptable. And IE10 will be a reliable browser, the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, opera can also be said to be very impressive. But you may still not get rid of the shadows of IE6, 7, 8, and 9.

Further worsen

The release cycle of IE seems to be once a year. IE10, 11 is not far away, but more important than the release frequency is the browser's half-life. As part of Windows, Internet Explorer has a support period of more than 10 years. That means IE9, 10 in 2020 years to retire. By analogy, IE8 will retire in 9 years. Meanwhile, you won't have to worry about Firefox 6 and Chrome 13 until this November.

If IE continues the tradition, IE17 will be released in 2019, when IE8, 9 and 10 have not yet retired. So, in a few years, you will support a version of Chrome, a version of Firefox, a version of opera, and 10 versions of IE.

Ten versions of IE? No, exactly 72.

In a few years, developers will face 72 ie browsers.

IE provides multiple document modes, and each new version of IE retains the old version of the renderer to ensure normal browsing of content that does not conform to web development standards. That means IE9 contains ie8,ie7, and IE5 patterns. Empathy IE10 contains the IE9 and previous versions of the pattern:

Most of these versions are unstable versions that are unreliable.

What about the solution?

Let your users upgrade to the latest version?

Microsoft takes action: The IE team is taking new steps to provide end users with a way to upgrade their browsers without impacting business users.

Chrome Frame: This problem can be solved well. At least it's automatically updated and it's just a plugin.

Obviously, shortening the half-life of a browser is a boon to both the developer and the user experience. It's time for the IE team to take action.

Author: Paul Irish