Internet Explorer 6 was born on August 27, 2001. The browser was released in conjunction (well, a little after) with Windows XP as a major upgrade from Internet Explorer 5.5. From those humble beginnings in 2001, IE6 has continued to stay alive mostly because of the continued support/use of Windows XP and web-based applications built specifically for IE6.

Here are a few reasons IE6 is a big pile of junk:

• Numerous security issues.
• The inability to support CSS version 2 fully.
• No support for alpha transparency in PNG images.
• Quirks Mode, which emulates IE5.5.
• No tabbed browsing.
• It’s OLD!

So what makes a good browser!?

• Full CSS 2+ support.
• HTML/JavaScript W3C standards compliancy.
• HTML/JavaScript performance improvements.
• All new browsers utilize tabbed browsing.
• Some new browsers (such as Google Chrome) have “Task Managers” that can allow you to destroy certain tabs that may have become unresponsive by a web site.
• Support for HTML 5.

If you’re still using IE 6, consider upgrading to a new browser such as Mozilla FireFox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or a newer version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. You’ll make yourself and web developers around the world so happy!