IE7 users, we need to talk… – Nurse Recruiter

IE7 users, we need to talk…

IE7

Wayne Gretzky once said “skate where the puck is going, not where it’s been” and, in the fast-evolving world of technology, this is sound advice that we have taken to heart as we launched the new NursingJobs.us job board. The new site uses a more modern interface that supports the mobiles and tablets that our users increasingly prefer.

Unfortunately, this also means that we have had to make the decision to leave Internet Explorer 7 users behind, a decision we did not take lightly (after all, we have been supporting even IE6 till recently!) but that we are convinced is the right thing for us to do at this time.

IE7 users make up 1.22% of our traffic right now, and this will decline as more computers are upgraded and can use modern browsers. However, we know that some of our clients are still stuck with IE7 so we decided to make a bold offer, one that initially seemed crazy to us but now makes a lot of sense.

We are offering to buy a new computer with a modern browser for any of our customers who are stuck with IE7. We determined that it would cost us more to support a browser from 2006 in 2014 and beyond than it would to help our clients upgrade their legacy hardware.

To any of our clients still using IE7, we are sorry that the site doesn’t work as well as we would like it to in your browser. Contact us to redeem our offer to provide you with a new computer to upgrade your browser. We want to make sure all our customers are well served by our new product and we are serious about making this right if our ceasing to support IE7 becomes an inconvenience.

January 24, 2014 • Categories: Nursing News
87 Comments

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87 comments

Manuel Reis

So… Why aren’t you suggesting any alternative browser? (Like Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera…) It’s a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper option for you.

Patrick H. Lauke

Of course, it’s not just old computers that are the problem…but ongoing maintenance of those computers and any other software (“enterprise” web-based systems that are so shonky they can only be accessed with outdated browsers, that one bespoke application that was created back in the stone age and only runs in WindowsXP, etc). But yes, I like the sentiment.

Ben

This post is absolutely awesome.. as a developer I appreciate this so much.

Brad

As a web developer, I salute you.

Cheaper to buy modern entry level computers for the 1.22% of users than pay my wages for even three months: probable.

Reece Young

Hello,

I am one of the few people stuck with internet explorer 7. I thought it was good, but after seeing your site on my sisters computer it looks so much better.

I do not know what else to say except I’m broke and I’m stuck in the past.

-Reece

kevin we

Oh you don’t know what this means to my workflow. I can’t wait to be upgraded.
Thanks so much bob.

Jim

Kudos! Buy them Asus Ubuntu laptops!

Frank

“supporting even IE6 till recently” till?? Really? Are you an idiot? That’s a contraction of until. One L. Not two. It should be written as ’til. That’s proper and correct.

Zach Leatherman

What are you buying them? Have you thought about Chromebooks?

Ewen McCahon

As a developer and a prolific web user, i must say this strategy is both fascinating and completely accurate. The amount of time I spend optimizing sites for IE6 and 7 could just as easily be spent elsewhere and costs clients very nearly the entire cost of the initial development. Bravo on this idea, and i think soon designers and developers will be free to use the latest developments to bring beauty back to web design! Also, the new job board design is a clean and friendly improvement from the previous one, well done!

Krish

I’m surprised no one else has asked how do you go about requesting the new computer and it’s configuration, or is it just attention grabbing?

Michael Geary

@Frank – “till?? Really? Are you an idiot? That’s a contraction of until. One L. Not two. It should be written as ’til. That’s proper and correct.”

No, if you read any modern dictionary you will find you are quite mistaken. For example:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/till

till

preposition

1. up to the time of; until: to fight till death.

John Locke

@Manuel Some people are stuck with older computers and IE6/7 for various reasons, most of the time it is enterprise level situations. If the person is accessing from home on their own computer, the fact is that older computers were not built for the resource use of modern browsers.
Your suggested solution, while in the right spirit, is not feasible for users with outdated equipment.

Brian

I’m posting this from my friends computer because mine sucks. I still use IE7 and I am grateful for the offer to upgrade!

JT

How about Chromeframe…. you don’t need admin rights to install it

Jonathan

Unfortunately you don’t know your customers very well. Either they don’t like change or their IT department doesn’t.

Either way, you’re stuck supporting them. HTML5 should come with an asterisk.

Kris Selbekk

Amazing deal.

Unfortunately, clients stuck with this kind of browser, usually have to use it due to regulations given to them by their employer. Luckily, this browser will get phased out with Win XP, so you won’t have to stress this for too long 🙂

loafish

Teach a human to use firefox and he will never be stuck in an outdated browser ever again, offer to buy him or her a computer so (s)he can run a more recent version of windows which is artificially tied to an old version of internet explorer and you are fueling the issue by making sure it will happen again, soon.

But it seems nowadays people still wrongfully thinks throwing a pile of money at a problem will fix it. Though you marketing people have found a way to get some very cheap advertising by running this poor attempt at fixing outdated internet explorer.

Dave

@Frank And even if you *were* correct, it was an over-the-top reaction to an extra “l”. That said, I *am* sorry you feel like you have nothing better to get upset and call people names about, because that’s sad.

Andy Warburton

If you’re excluding users based on their browsers, you’re doing it wrong. Use a combination of progressive enhancement and feature detection.

Alexandre

It’s sad that when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP, they didn’t propose me a new laptop for Windows 8…
😉

Will Morgan

It might be cheaper for you to buy the customer a new computer, but have you considered whether it’s going to be more expensive for the customer when they lose time trying to get to grips with Windows 7 or 8.1?

Ramon Lapenta

I don’t believe the problem is the capability of the hardware, if a computer is capable of running IE7, it is also capable of running a more modern browser. That’s why the offer.

I’d also like to know how many users is 1.22%.

Juan Antonio de los Palotes Machado

Nice, so now someone who hasn’t upgraded his browser in 8 years has to deal with data backups, restoring, and throwing away old hardware, just to make your life simpler. Why not just provide a simpler site, so also simpler browsers can use your site too?

datenkind

Big kudos for this move, dudes.

This is for Frank, the lousy grammar punk:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116367/

peter doherty

If IE7 users are forced to use company hardware to access the company network, what good does buying them a new machine do?

Also, why haven’t you suggested that your users install any of the superior, free alternatives like Firefox?

agerager

Damned! I swear I’m stuck on IE7. Yeah, I have just installed it though Parallel Desktop. Could you help me to buy a new Mac? :p

katzmopolitan

Kudos for this bold move! I’m not sure which segment of your users is on IE7 but it may also be worth to mention that if they are on IE7 chance are they are using an old version of Windows is not supported anymore and they are susceptible to other vulnerabilities. I just opened your site in IE6, there is no notice that you don’t support older browsers. I think that would be a better alternative than just showing a broken site.

Heather Burns

This is a brave experiment! I’ll be keen to see how it’s going six months down the road.

What my client analytics have shown for a long time is that users of the older browsers IE8, IE7, and IE6 are exclusively institutions – offices, hospitals, government offices, etc – and not individuals. Rather than tilting at windmills, it’s important to understand that no one who is still using IE8, IE7, and IE6 is doing so by personal choice. They’re doing so because that’s the system they log into when they sit down at work, and there’s nothing they can do about that. So while they wouldn’t be helped by your project, you’re still to be commended for helping IE7 users change in a constructive way, rather than slagging them off as other anti-browser campaigns have done.

Adam

While we are on the topic, check out this article.

IE8 is Going the Way of the Dodo, So Why Support a Dying Species?
http://zurb.com/article/1265/ie8-is-going-the-way-of-the-dodo-so-why-s

Michael Butler

I also suggest a prompt to install Chromeframe… does not require admin rights so everyone should be able to install it. What’s the problem there?

Floyd Black

Has no one else has asked how do you go about requesting the new computer and it’s configuration?

Nathan Anderson

Any computer that can run IE7 (which has a minimum OS requirement of Windows XP SP2) is also capable of running IE8. Soooo…I’m confused. It seems to me that people who are actually still using IE7 are doing so not because they *can’t* upgrade, but because they are too lazy to do so.

htmlnate

Nice Post! We all need to get together and stop supporting these browsers, or else people will never have a reason to upgrade..

Fred Bare

Got it! Time to downgrade so I can get a new computer!

🙂

Andre X

Maybe create an IE7 survey in the site, to find out why they are still using it? Make it pop up first time they visit the site with IE7. Also suggest Google Chrome or Firefox as options.

E

Why did you support IE 6? The web has long moved on to GPU acceleration and 3-d graphics! Thank you for encouraging people to switch.
PS- It’s Internet EXPLODER

Autumn Payan

I’m a nursing student trying to obtain my RN license. I am balancing school full time, work full time as a Nurse Tech and I am a single mom to a beautiful 5 month old. I can not tell you enough how much it would mean to me to receive an updated computer not only will it be such a blessing but also help my future dream to become an RN. Please let me know what I can do to be granted this wonderful opportunity you are offering! Thank you!

Simon Brown

A fellow developer told me about this page. Well done! Excellent decision!

Freeksfeset

You don’t know how to program, you blame IE7, you offer to buy people computers…

Answer: You have no clue what you are doing. Sad!~

rick

Wow. People use IE? I have chrome, firefox and midori on my computer. There are many other alternatives and almost all work better than IE. I still don’t understand why people are still paying for windows for that matter. There are easier to use Linux alternatives in any flavor you want for any computer you have and they are all free. Why try to put win7 or 8 on that p4 machine that came with xp when you could load a lightweight linux distro with all the open source software you need for free? Just seems like a no brainer to me.

Kanuka Clancy

I know I’d be pretty upset if a person who couldn’t type at all insulted my programming abilities.

Paolo

It’s just me that think this thing is only a marketing campaign? A good one and probably cheaper than many other too.
About those who wrote that there are other solutions (simpler website, suggest to upgrade and so on), well, this has nothing to do with technical solution and even if I don’t know how many are 1.22% and how many of these will claim their new pc, I’m ready to bet that giving out these pc could cost more than a technical solution (of course I’m a dev a face these things everyday).
I guess that the problem for which they throw out this solution wasn’t ‘What do we do with people using IE7?’, but ‘The marketing dept has run out of ideas, we need a fresh new one’ (or maybe a mix of the two).
Sorry for the grammar, english is not my language.

cheap bastard

So should I shift to IE7 if I want to earn a new computer…?

vasseur

Envie de voir si vos dire son vrai !!! A savoir recevoir un ordinateur portable gratuitement ?????? Et voir aussi si le fait de changer de navigateur est réellement moins cher !!!

Alexandre :Lacharite

who is my pc why receive pc i use all time firefox and chrome

Christopher Walsh

No support? I would like to see the website.

Russell

Maybe buy them a low cost tablet instead. That way you can stop all the stuff people are saying about them not being allowed to upgrade their hardware by the company etc.

Henry Lahman

A full windows computer or something more along the lines of chromeos or even a pre-configured raspberry pi?

a raspi configuration would be much cheaper and easier to support (by pre-configuring some support tools)

Barbara Welton

I’m not sure I totally understand.

mario

This is just plain silly and a waste of money.
Why don’t just enforce browser upgrade? (it can be done via javascript blocking browsing with IE and a message soliciting a browser upgrade)

da Silva

Bonjour
IE7 n’est plus supporté dans la pluspart des applications professionnel. Elles sont développées sous les nouvelles generation IE7 et Java…Flash….par conséquent il est obligatoire de modifier toute l architecture applicative.

da Silva

Hello.
IE7 is not supported by pluspart the applications of the professional. They are developed under rising generation IE7 Java and Flash……. therefore it is necessary to change all the structures application.

Darren Tutawk

There are many healthcare professionals who are stuck with legacy browsers AND operating systems at work. I have seen people in the recent months (this is Jan. 2014) in healthcare, both admin offices and in clinical areas using Windows 98, NT and XP and even pre-IE7 versions of the browser! Why? Because healthcare IT pleads poverty in many quarters OR they are tied down to some application that is (a) discontinue, (b) too expensive to replace and (c) won’t run on newer browsers. And if you think you can get them to switch to Firefox or Chrome, go tell them yourself as they could use the laugh.

Skosana

Please Help me with an Auxiliary Nursing job around JHB

Josh

Be prepared to have people who get a free computer from you personally blame you for each and every problem they encounter for the rest of their lives.

louise mercier

You can send me a new computer, please.

Dewandeler Eric

Perso, je veux bien n’importe quel autre navigateur, du moment qu’on m’offre un PC neuf.
Que la société se mette en contact avec moi et je suis partant a 100/100.

Dewandeler Eric

Send me a new PC! No problem!!!

Jarrot

J’utilise Firefox sur mes trois ordis

marcus59

Je suis pret a laisser internet 7 pour un pc neuf ,faut je change le mien .

GREDER Gerard

je suis prêt à suivre vos conseils !…..

Martin

Cool program you have started. Send me PC too 😛

Mercader Daniel

Bonjour

Je me suis toujours méfier des navigateurs Microsoft. Failles de sécurité, lenteur, opacité, etc.
IE7 ne me rassure pas plus que IE6…
Des alternatives plus sûres existent, autant en profité !

Dj Mercader

Hello

I am always to be wary of the Microsoft navigators. Security breaches, slowness, opacity, etc
IE7 does not reassure me more than IE6…
Surer alternatives exist, as much benefitted from it!

Dj Mercader

Thomas Bereczky

Well this is a hard choice but I can live with it :D:D:D:D

momo

cela fait bien longtempt que je ne me sert plus de IE7 et les autres,le mielleur est Mozilla firefox et Bing,avec ça je fait tout.

Diva Neves

Hi, my name is Diva and I have 88 years and use the computer with ease. I’m from Brazil and my grandson helps me constantly, but with this IE 7 could not see more recipes and emails. I need a new computer. Thanks,
Sincerely

Spica

I need a new computer because I’m one of the IE6 users:(

Rosen Stefanov

i am kind of used to IE7 but this sounds like a kind of a great deal

The Average Joe

your users are so stupid they can’t figure out how to use Google Chrome or Firefox? That is odd offering a computer when it would be much easier to run another browser. Don’t tell me your site was written by a dip sh!t that required a specific version of IE… LOL You get what you pay for when you outsource your development.

Gildson Fiorotti Coelho

Eu necessito de um pc novo então 🙁

Bob Rundquist

As a retired Data Systems Administrator I have always preferred and reccomended the IE browser. However my home system keeps giving me ‘IE not responding’ and ‘script error’ messages.

C. Larsen

Geeez…why do people complain?….I’ll gladly accept a new computer…no question…where do i sign 🙂

Jeff Romero

I’m amazed to still have clients using IE. It just goes to show that everyone is different and as web folks, we have to remember to test on all browsers.