Microsoft: 'Friends don't let friends use IE6'Microsoft: 'Friends don't let friends use IE6'

Microsoft: 'Friends don't let friends use IE6'
But defends enterprise reluctance to scrap 'albatross' of a browser
By Gregg Keizer
August 17, 2009 03:57 PM ET

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* Microsoft: 'Friends don't let friends use IE6'


Computerworld - Microsoft sympathizes with people pushing what it calls the "Die IE6, Die" campaign, but argued today that it simply can't put a stake in the old browser's heart.

"Friends don't let friends use IE6," said Amy Bazdukas, Microsoft's general manager for Internet Explorer (IE). That sentiment, however, only applies to some people using Windows and the eight-year-old browser -- mainly consumers. "It's certainly part of our approach to consumers to get them to upgrade to IE8," Bazdukas said.

But while she agreed that consumers should ditch IE6, and understood the motivation behind the growing chorus of Web sites calling for an end to the browser, Bazdukas said Microsoft couldn't give the same advice to businesses. "With our business customers, it's more complex," she argued. "For them, deploying a browser is very like much like deploying an operating system across multiple desktops. So it's not a surprise that IE6 is still being used."

Not that Microsoft's entirely happy with that. "IE6 use is higher than we like," Bazdukas admitted. "Most of that is from the business installations, that's where we see most of the trailing installations of IE6."

According to the most recent data from California-based Web metrics company Net Applications, 27.2% of all Internet users are still running IE6, making it the most popular version of IE. By comparison, IE7 accounted for 23.1% of all browsers in action last month, while the newest edition, IE8, had a usage share of 12.5%.

In other words, IE6 accounts for approximately 40% of all instances of Internet Explorer worldwide, beating both IE7 (34%) and IE8 (19%) in "IE market share."

Bazdukas also attributed some of IE6's popularity to Windows' high piracy rates in countries like China and India. "There's a reluctance [among people using counterfeit Windows] to use Automatic Updates," she said, calling out China in particular. "Rather than download updates, often the solution to problems is to re-image the machine using the pirated, pre-XP SP2 counterfeit. That also helps to drive the persistence of IE6."

"I think Microsoft would like to have people upgrade from IE6," said Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner. "But the situation is, it's surprisingly difficult to get enterprises to upgrade. Many companies have old software that depends on IE6, and that software is not upgradable because they have no budget or the developer is not around anymore, or the in-house developer left."

Like Bazdukas, Valdes thinks IE6 is ancient history. "I've recommended to clients for the last two years that they get off IE6," Valdes said. "Almost anywhere else is a better place to be."

Bazdukas reiterated what several other Microsoft managers have recently said, that the company is committed to supporting IE6 until April 8, 2014, which is when all support for Windows XP, the operating system IE6 is tied to, will end.

Microsoft shifts gears (again) with its Oslo modeling platform

August 17th, 2009
Microsoft shifts gears (again) with its Oslo modeling platform

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:06 am

Categories: .Net Framework, Code names, Corporate strategy, Database, Development tools..., PDC 2009, SQL Server, Visual Studio 10 ("Hawaii")

Tags: Team, Oslo, Microsoft Corp., Modeling, Research & Development..., Team Management, Business Operations, Management, Mary Jo Foley
1 TalkBack

It’s been awfully quiet on the Microsoft service-oriented architecture (SOA) front for the past nine months or so. But on August 17, Product Unit Manager Doug Purdy broke the silence to provide an update on Microsoft’s “Oslo” modeling platform and strategy.

The Data Programmability team (which manages Astoria, Entity Data Model (EDM), Entity Framework (EF), XML, ADO.Net and tools/designers) is merging with the Oslo team, Purdy blogged. (The Oslo team has been working on the M language , which was formerly known as “D”; the Quadrant tool; and the modeling repository.)

Purdy blogged:

“What does this mean for you (.NET developers)? You are going hear more about how ‘M’/EF/EDM align. How our VS tools related to ‘Quadrant.’ How this notion of ‘model-drive software’ evolves with the existing .NET FX (Framework) investments. … More to be reveled at PDC (in November in Los Angeles).”

Purdy acknowledged Microsoft officials used the “Oslo” term too broadly when the company first shared its high-level Oslo vision back in 2007. At one point, Microsoft was referring to everything from the next release of its Workflow Framework (WF) and Windows Communication Framework (WCF) 4.0, to its “Dublin” application server, the next release of BizTalk Server, and a future release of SQL Server as all being components of Oslo.

In more recent months, however, the team began shifting its positioning to only use “Oslo” to refer to the modeling pieces of the platform. WF 4.0, WCF 4.0, Dublin and other “.Net 4.0 wave” deliverables, expected to be released in the spring of 2010, are no longer positioned as pieces of Oslo.

So what is Oslo today? Purdy offered this definition back in April:

“The term ‘Oslo’ today refers to a modeling stack — which is just technology jargon for a data stack. We have a language (’M') for writing down other languages, instance data, schemas, expressions and functions. We have a repository (which is just a SQL Server database with a “catalog” in it) for storing data. We have a tool (’Quadrant’) for getting N views (graphical and textual over that data). We have a set of base ‘models’ that people can use and extend to help people write down and access data. We are then taking that stack and working with teams all over Microsoft to move the application lifecycle (design, build, manage) to top of this stack.”

Purdy still isn’t mentioning any ship targets for M, Quadrant or the repository, but maybe now that the team behind those modeling elements is merging with a team shipping discrete tools, Microsoft’s new modeling platform will start trickling out sooner rather than later….

Mary Jo FoleyMary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 20 years. Don't miss a single post. Subscribe via Email or RSS. You can also follow Mary Jo on Twitter.

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