The Thögosphere

Today, August 15th, 37signals will be begin phasing out support for IE 6 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6) across all their products. Apple has already taken the first step with their recently launched product, MobileMe (Yes, I know they’re not the first to not support IE 6, but probably the first to do it with a product of that magnitude).

So what’s with the fuzz?

If you’re a web developer, you probably already know what this means – for us, but also for the web experience which IE 6 has prevented for so many years.

If you’re not a web developer, and don’t understand what the whining and complaining is about, let me put it this way: IE 6 is a last generation web browser. It was released in 2001 (yes, that’s seven painful years) along with Windows XP. Since then, there has been close to no upgrades (except for maybe two dozen security patches). IE 6 was broken back then, and it is certainly broken today – It did not, and still doesn’t, support the web standards, making it often quite difficult (and definitely time consuming!!) for developers to make their web sites work perfectly in every browser.

Back then IE 5.5 (which was even worse) and IE 6 had about 90% market share, so it wasn’t such of a problem. As long as it worked in these browsers, everything was fantastic, and if the site didn’t work in e.g. Netscape Navigator – well, too bad for them.

However, IE 6 has remained as the top most used browser, simply because people didn’t know better to actually upgrade to a newer (and more securer) one, thus prohibiting webapps to reach their full potential.

It must get worse before it gets better

Luckily, IE 7 (which was released with Vista) has now reached a higher percentage than IE 6, meaning as developers, we don’t need to use countless hours to make our sites work in this old and out-dated web browser.

As of today, I will also stop supporting IE 6 for my own projects (I won’t restrict them from entering any sites, I just won’t do any effort to make it work – and ask them nicely to upgrade their browser), and I hope many will follow.

Further reading:

http://37signals.blogs.com/products/2008/07/basecamp-phasin.html
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1072-apples-mobileme-drops-support-for-ie-6
http://browsehappy.com/
http://savethedevelopers.org/

Internet Explorer 6 users should upgrade to one of these modern browsers:

Download Internet Explorer 7
Download Firefox
Download Opera
Download Safari

Dropbox is an incredible easy way to sync, share and backup your files – and it integrates seamlessly into your desktop.

What is it?

Say you want to sync multiple computers, or you just want to be able to share your files online without any hassle. Dropbox works as your regular folder – just drop a file in, and it will automatically upload it to your own personal space. Install it on another computer, authorize it, and it’s automatically synced. If you want to share a file with a friend, right click the file in your filebrowser, and copy the url. It’s easy as pie.

But, it doesn’t end there. Dropbox even has its own revision system, meaning you don’t have to go on a panic spree if you manage to delete or overwrite a file. Just bring it back in the web panel, and you’re good.

With a beta account, you get 2GB to play around with.

Why do I recommend it?

Well, I want to sync multiple computers and be able to share my files online without any hassle. My co-workers and I have already adopted this when we’re working with the same files – which is too small to require something like subversion.

It’s a great app, it has growl support and it’s free!

I’m giving away invites. Just ask in the comments area :-)

Sorry, I’m all out of invites.

Secondbrain is a cool and easy way to manage (most of) your web 2.0 services.

What is it?

Secondbrain gathers all most of your bookmarks, social media and files in one place, and lets you follow your friends and discover new cool content. Some of the supported services are Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Digg and Del.icio.us.

Why do I recommend it?

If you’re like me you’re probably up to here with different web 2.0 services, and it’s kind of nice to gather most of them in one place.

As the new iPhone3G approaches, I’m looking into what’s really the big difference between it and the “old” iPhone.

First things first, the iPhone3G has 3G-support (as the name implies) and GPS. Many people have complained about the iPhone lacking these features, so that’s cool. It has gotten a little design tweaking with a glossy posterior. Another great feature is the support for regular mini-jacks, which for me is the biggest win of them all.

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So Opera 9.5 has been released, and they talk big about their new look. When we talk about browser performance, Opera is no doubt among the best. But now I’m not so sure if it’s among the prettiest.

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