IE9, HTML5 & CSS3: Should we be scared?
By Julien in 
I’ve never been a fan of Microsoft products and especially not a fan of Explorer – or as we call it in my field: Exploder. As a designer, coder and (from time to time) developer, Explorer, even though each version got better with time, is a difficult and limited browser to code for. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on a rampage about this topic. It’s been done numerous times before by fellow designers and won’t change anything about the fact that Explorer is still the browser of choice (forced choice in my opinion) for more than half of all internet users. In other words, it doesn’t matter how much you hate it, a Web site designer needs to make sure that his/her code works properly in Explorer 7 (IE7) and 8 (IE8) and even 6 (IE6) depending on the target audience.
As you may have heard, Microsoft is soon releasing the 9th version of its famous browser: Explorer 9 (IE9). This time it looks like Microsoft developers are finally lining up with their competitors (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) based on this Six Revisions article. Explorer is still the leader when it comes to web browsing (over 50% of the market) but it is not when it comes to making decisions on what technology to use for web development. With the slow switch to HTML5 and CSS3, with popular browsers like Firefox and Chrome already embracing this new technology, Microsoft had no other choice but follow the example of its competition to stay in the race. Granted it’s a little early to say if IE9 is going to become well-received by web developers and end-users. However, at first glance it seems that Microsoft is going the right direction. So why should we be scared?
As I mentioned earlier, a good web designer / developer will make sure that a website is functional and viewable in all major browsers, including: IE7, IE8, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and eventually IE6 and Opera. When Explorer 9 is released, not all Explorer users will automatically update their outdated version. It’s unfortunate but this is the reason why IE6 is still around. Based on that, I can only assume that IE7 and IE8 will be hard to kill making the switch to HTML5 and CSS3 a long and painful process possibly forcing web designers to code 2 versions of the same website, one for old browsers like IE7 and IE8 and one for HTML5 supporting browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and to some level IE9 (TBD). Only time will tell if IE9 is going to mean more work and headaches for web people or not. One thing is sure though, IE9 is inevitable.
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