Internet Explorer 6 lives on until 2014

Despite the fact that Internet Explorer 6 is almost eight years old, it will still take almost five years until the aging browser will face its death. Several parties are raising their voices in an attempt to kill the browser, but Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's browser group, responded to critics that dropping support for IE6 is not an option because the company is committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. This means IE6 will continue to receive some form of support until April 8, 2014.

The article also mentions a recent survey at Digg that asked users why they're still using IE6. About 76 percent voted that they can't upgrade, with the main reason being that they either don't have administrator access or aren't allowed to upgrade the browser at work. Another 17 percent feels no need to upgrade, and 7 percent said they prefer IE6 over other browsers.

According to the July 10 post by Digg, more than two-thirds of IE6 users polled said they couldn't change their browser because of work restrictions.

Hachamovitch admitted that business IE6 lock-in prevents many users from upgrading. " Many PCs don't belong to individual enthusiasts, but to organizations," he said in an entry to the IE blog late Monday. "The people in these organizations [who are] responsible for these machines decide what to do with them. These people are professionally responsible for keeping tens or hundreds or thousands of PCs working on budget."

More info at ComputerWorld.