Developing web apps almost always results in rough hacks which work (more or less) in the browsers the developers use. Standards are getting better, and developing using the Mozilla engine means that most browsers will probably work ok. However, this was far from the case just a few years back.

Making matters worse, Micro$oft was busy trying to take over the web by introducing their own non-standard ways of doing things. Mozilla and others had their own extensions, but those were intended to be incorporated into future standards… Micro$oft made crap like ActiveX and hosts of smaller extensions which were intended to exclude competing browsers.

Finally, javascript sucks rocks. It is a horrible language that pretty much ensures crappy code. I’m amazed how much work folks have done making the frameworks and such which make it actually useful. Still, I’m for burning it down to the ground and starting over from a more sound foundation.

As for websites, any site that doesn’t work properly with my chosen browser – whatever that may be – is unlikely to get a return visit. I don’t want other people telling me what software I can and cannot use.

It’s really not easy to build a web application that works properly in both IE6 and decent browsers

I’d say that’s an understatement. Been causing me hell for quite sometime

@The Wanderer

. Then I have to fire up the Windoze laptop they gave me so I can run IE

Shit, if your companies big enough you should look into Citrix app server. My Mac and Home users just launch a quick script file to connect them to my Windows server, which brings up a seamless IE window right in OS X (I use it for my Linux laptop when at home/road). It’s a real IE6 instance, only it’s ran on a session on the server in the office, but shows on your desktop (remote session). Also makes for easy home access to the corporate network, including Outlook (exchange), MRP software and Crystal Reports. I have it setup for wither single apps or you can get an entire windows desktop, kind of like a virtual machine, only it doesn’t hit your local resources, as everything ran server side. Terminal Services FTW

IE 6 is still very common in corporate settings.

Indeed – it’s the bane of my fucking life at the minute. It’s really not easy to build a web application that works properly in both IE6 and decent browsers.

Check this out, particularly the Web Technology Support, Image Format Support, and Vulnerabillities sections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers

And this. The Usage share of IE has been steadily decreasing and hopefully in another 5 years, if the trend continues, will only be used by those too stupid to install a different browser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

I think even Microsoft wishes that IE6 would go away

They very much do wish it would go away. The problem is that it shipped with XP and MS has stated that they will continue to support XP until April of 2014. From the MSDN blog

“Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments. Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have.”

and

For its own part, Microsoft would be happy to see you stop using IE6, too. In another blog post, the company says, “Think about what technology and the Internet were like in the year 2000 â?? and consider how they’ve evolved since then. In 2000, â??phishing’ was something that happened at the lake, not online. There was no social networking, no RSS feeds, and no real blogs. It was a different time â?? and people’s browsing needs were different.”

@Mad

Locking software into a specific version of other software is a maintenance nightmare

This is one thing that angers me. We have an intranet that interfaces directly with our ERP software. Granted it’s just SQL tables, but the company that made the ERP made the intranet software and they are picky about giving us the proper definitions of tables. They won’t upgrade the intranet software so that it can run on newer systems. It runs on old Active X controllers, among other things (I hate active X!) and IE7 and 8 won’t work, nor will Firefox or any webkit browser.