Q: Why can't we just ask people to upgrade their browsers or switch browsers?
A: There are many reasons why people can't, or don't want to upgrade their browsers or switch. You can certainly tell people they should upgrade, but you can't force them, and not supporting them on your site is not only rude, but can cause you to lose visitors. Some reasons why people may not be able to upgrade or switch browsers:
- They may be using the browser you require already, but may have features such as Javascript or Java turned off for various reasons, including security, company policy, stability, or reducement of annoyances (such as those hideous Geocities popup windows)
- They are using a shared or lab computer that they can't install programs on
- The computer they use may be too old to support a different or more recent version, or may run too slowly with it
- They may be using a device that has a built in, non-replaceable browser (such as WebTV or a Nokia 9000)
- They may be using a platform which will not support Netscape or Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you're encouraging them to use)
- They may not feel comfortable installing software on the computer unless it's absolutely necessary
- They may not be willing to go through the download
- They may be using a shell account which only allows text based access
- They may not be willing to put up with the security holes, bugs, or other problems associated with the major browsers
- They may prefer an alternate browser- many third party browsers offer features unavailable in the major browsers
- They may have special needs which restrict their ability to use the mass market browsers or make other browsers more useful to them. Even if they use a mass market browser, some features may still not work for them. For instance users who are blind use speech based browsers, and even if they have a browser with image support, they still can't understand the images without ALT attributes being specified by the page.
