In the last few days, on one particular system I use frequently, there has been a banner at the top of every page:
This site will soon remove support for Internet Explorer 11 - please update your browser
What is going on here? This is a Win 7 system, running the latest version of IE supported on Win 7 (that I know of). Yes, I know, Win 7 isn’t “supported” anymore, but of course still works fine. IE 11 isn’t all that old.
Why is this site insisting on using features that are so new that they aren’t included in IE 11? What features are those? Why are they so important that it’s OK to not make the site work on some existing systems. The site seems to work just fine today. It doesn’t make sense that this can’t continue for a long while yet.
Administrative Notice:
I have deleted two answer, which got the same misunderstanding as I had. This question is about THE FORUM SOFTWARE, not about our project.
I guess it is, because some essential modern CSS features aren’t really working in IE11, such as flexbox
Also see this for an official announcement by the forum dev team:
My recommendation, which has been the case for many years to all my friends, family & customers:
Use your choice of Firefox or Chrome, unless a specific website REQUIRES using Internet Explorer (or Edge).
I am also using Windows 7, as are many of my customers (who are now getting really annoying concerned about upgrading because Windows 7 end-of-support). But I only use Internet Explorer for testing and not for anything “real”.
The two situations I know of that actually require Internet Explorer (and not just some old-but-never-removed meaningless “we recommend Internet Explorer”) are video viewers (not YouTube - things like CCTV systems - it turns out there is a very complicated technical/legal reason why these often require IE) and sometimes bank systems with check scanners (but thankfully these are much more likely to support other browsers than a few years ago). Everything else: pick your favorite non-Microsoft browser.
The blurb you quoted seems like it has a bit of an attitude problem to IE and maybe Microsoft. “Built for the future”, “relies on current, evolving web standards” are vague weasel-words, and sound like they are trying to shame IE and thereby deflect blame for dropping support.
The software runs fine right now. This means they are planning to add features that are not supposedly supported by IE 11. IE 11 is not that old, so this feels like adding bleeding edge features just for the sake of adding bleeding edge features.
Unfortunately, none of the other browsers I’ve used are as nice as IE. The hot keys work better, there is much better control over various options, you can generally set it up with minimal space used for itself, and the menus are more sensible. For example, try finding something as simple as “save > as” in Chrome.
Seriously, though - IE11 is 7 years old. In a world of browsers that update every week, that’s prehistoric. It lacks support for a huge number of features that modern websites rely on, and I’m not surprised that Discourse is deprecating it.
In any case - this is not something we have control over. We don’t direct Discourse development, we just use the software. If you want to make your opinion known to folks who can change the decision, that’s over here.