Is IE a developer/designer’s bane?

For some time now, we have been trying to find the source of a number of bugs in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) that have held back the launch of a new site. This is not something new or specific to this site, though how these bugs manifested themselves was something different to those any of us had noted in the past. With IE6 still accounting for over 20% of web traffic, it’s quirks cannot be simply ignored. If anything, the all but disappearance if IE5 is a good thing.

With the increase in usage of IE7 (~27%), which has removed a number of the quirks of earlier versions of the IE browser, you would not think that designer and developer relief would be misplaced. That, it appears, is being too hasty. I have noted many bugs with the beta of IE8 that all but destroy some standards-compliant sites.

One positive is that Mozilla’s Firefox has reached a figure of 44% of total browser use—closing in on passing IE (combination of IE6 and IE7). Being open source, we foresee far less potential issues with Firefox being dominant than IE. We hope it signals the end of browsers shirking w3 standards. We hope, give the inconsistencies still present in the IE8 beta—will Microsoft come to the party and fix these is the pending question...

For stats on common browser usage, by month, see the W3 Schools website.