Why can’t vendors refuse to support IE11 on the grounds that it’s a security risk? If you reframe the problem to “IE11 is insecure,” surely customers will adapt?
[0] https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-security-chief-ie-is...
- Convince bajillion dollar investment banks to switch web browsers just to use our service
- Accept a mild decrease in developer experience
At my org we use Chrome or Edge as the default and define ie11-only sites in group policy. When you navigate, IE11 pops up automatically.
As an aside a company I used to work for was so underwater on tech debt that instead of modernizing their site they repackaged IE9 as a citrix app that business partners had to run. People are willing to overlook a lot when the commissions are good and that was not the worst thing I have seen in the insurance space.
As a side note, I would guess most non-GSuite users are logging into their Google account on Chrome and getting a unifed bookmark, whereas if they sign into a MS account at work/Edge, it will have to be their work Office365 account, breaking their unified browsing experience.
The only reason we have this big conversation about "supporting" different browsers is because one single holdout has been that bad for so long.
And to even MS's credit, I think a large part of that has been the fact that they're not "evergreen" (i.e forcing all users to be on the current version). They've always been doomed by the fact that "what they're judged on" isn't their current work, but is usually the version that's _almost a decade_ out of date.
Companies have lots of pieces of software that they support for extended periods of time. Also, they typically avoid requiring users to use different browsers for different applications. The number of support calls goes up dramatically if you need users to use different browsers, and it causes usability headaches when linking from one system to another, because you can only have one default browser. If you bring a piece of enterprise software into any organization, they will want you to target the browser they're using.... so, targeting IE was written into the requirements well after it was a good idea, because legacy compatibility was required. That, of course, works until MS throws a wrench in the works and discontinues the browser.
SaaS will change this somewhat, because the software is continually updated by the vendor. It's mainly on-prem and/or custom applications that cause this issue, because they don't get upgraded until big bucks are dished out.
Which is precisely why Chromium-based Edge has an IE Mode that uses Trident for given sites so that those legacy systems can be filtered to use a different browser engine from within the same browser UX.
Between ~2010 and the January release of Edge this year, a lot of organizations were dealing with the scenario I outlined.
Although as recently as this month, I've run into scenarios where Chromium-based Edge acts a bit differently than Chrome... so it's not a solid solution in all cases.
I mean the Edge team will treat any such case as a bug if you report it.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/30/flash-you...
I understand some companies insist on IE11, but companies insist on a lot of “requirements” that aren’t actually necessary if you push back on them. When the rubber hits the road, if your software is truly the best/only option, they can find a way to use a secure browser to access it.
"Killer app" only works in the consumer and small business spaces these days.
"Killer app" came from Visicalc, which caused millions of accountants and businesspeople to buy Apple II machines.