You know, I hear this sentiment very often on HN and I have to wonder who these websites are being developed for.
The last two products I've worked at has had an audience that includes individuals who either cannot or will not upgrade their web browser. They are stuck on whatever their IT department froze their browser version to year(s) ago. This could be internet explorer 9 or some ancient version of Firefox or Chrome.
The individuals in this circumstance always amount to what some might consider to be a negligible amount of people (Probably less than 2%), however, I've always been unable to construct a good argument for why we should be unwilling to support 2% of our customer base when using a good cross-browser compatible library like jQuery from the start can save the argument from even taking place.
I suspect this is more the nature of working on B2B apps than B2C, although I do wonder how many people are actually looking at the browser analytics of their audience when they are so willing to forsake jQuery for "vanilla javascript".
I agree this used to be the case, but even in my very large, stubborn organization, we have finally upgraded to the most recent IE11 release. Because, so much on the web now, just doesn't work without it anymore. A lot of our issues come from the banking industry, where their apps will just straight not work. We've even had a few say you MUST use Chrome. For a BANK to request that is saying something about the landscape of supporting old browsers. The large push by Microsoft to get people's asses in gear is a good thing. The other half of the planet is using Chrome.
When my analytics still tell me I have customers accessing my site from internet explorer 9 and 10, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do. I can tell them to upgrade all I want, that doesn't mean it's going to happen.
Well, that appears to be what the rest of major organizations are doing. Their techs will literally just tell us too bad. Upgrade or use a different browser, and I agree. Progress.
When you're in a growing startup trying to get as many customers as you can, slamming the door on them with an avoidable technical issue isn't progress.
I would argue a growing startup shouldn't worry about supporting 2% of the user base. You're needlessly allocating resources, and adding additional overhead for a tiny fraction of probably non paying customers. I really believe the era of having to worry about IE8/9 is over.
Yeah... if you look at global stats and extrapolate to your own company you're doing yourself (and your company a disservice). It completely depends on what you're selling and who your customers are.
Sure, okay, I'll tell my CEO that 2% of our customers just don't matter, becuase - yanno, the progress of the internet needs to happen.
Or I could just use jQuery from the start and not think about this problem again.
The last two products I've worked at has had an audience that includes individuals who either cannot or will not upgrade their web browser. They are stuck on whatever their IT department froze their browser version to year(s) ago. This could be internet explorer 9 or some ancient version of Firefox or Chrome.
The individuals in this circumstance always amount to what some might consider to be a negligible amount of people (Probably less than 2%), however, I've always been unable to construct a good argument for why we should be unwilling to support 2% of our customer base when using a good cross-browser compatible library like jQuery from the start can save the argument from even taking place.
I suspect this is more the nature of working on B2B apps than B2C, although I do wonder how many people are actually looking at the browser analytics of their audience when they are so willing to forsake jQuery for "vanilla javascript".