Technology moves at breakneck speeds. By the time it hits the shelves a technology is already outdated. To attempt to stay up to date, you can’t stop. Ever.
Businesses, however, are out to make a profit. Profits can’t be made if the business is spending all of its assets on upgrading technologies. Sacrifices are made. The business’ technology remains stagnant for years; forcing developers to support these antiquated technologies or risk losing customers.
When designing a web page a developer has to consider how the page will look on multiple browsers, and in some cases specifically code for compatibility:
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Opera
- Internet Explorer
- 5.0
- 6.0
- 7.0
- 8.0
- 9.0 (coming soon!)
That is not an exhaustive list, but a list of the “major” browsers that are used (your experiences may vary). As developers, we have been too lenient in supporting outdated software.
The more we have to support, the harder it is to move forward; firmly rooting our baseline technology to the past.
Imagine that a website is held between “New” and “Old” technologies by elastic bands:
The more backward compatible a website is, the harder it is to move forward. Eventually there are too many ties to old technology and advancement is sluggish. There is too much resistance to change:
The less backward compatibility that a website has, the easier it is to move forward:
Until, finally, no link to the past remains:
Eventually all ties have to be cut.
Developers should not have to worry about how their page will look on a Windows 98 box running IE 4.0; it’s time to move on… let those who refuse to update fend for themselves.
It’s time to stop looking at the internet through the browsers of the 90s.
