X

Shoo, IE7: To escape aging browser, jobs site buys its clients new PCs

NursingJobs concludes that it's cheaper to purchase new computers for its customers than to keep supporting Microsoft's 2006-era browser.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
2 min read
NursingJobs.us

For some folks, that elderly computer saddled with out-of-date software just turned into a ticket to a shiny new machine.

That's because NursingJobs, a site that connects nurses with employers that want to hire them, said it'll buy computers for some of its customers who are still using Microsoft's old IE7 browser.

"We are offering to buy a new computer with a modern browser for any of our customers who are stuck with IE7," said NursingJobs' Robert Gentel in a blog post the other day. "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."

A free new computer sounds like a good deal, but some people in corporate environments don't have a choice. Indeed, the need for compatibility with older in-house applications is often a key reason that old browsers linger even for people who'd personally move to modern software.

Supporting older browsers is often a struggle for Web developers who want to take advantage of new programming interfaces and faster JavaScript performance. Chrome and Firefox now automatically update themselves, but the browser market was a slower-moving place in 2006. Microsoft hasn't pushed aggressively toward auto-updating Internet Explorer, arguing that some customers don't like software that changes underneath them frequently. But it is trying to move into the future with modern features in its newest versions of IE and with an effort to coax IE6 users to upgrade.

Measurements from Clicky's analytics network of more than 500,000 Web sites show how Chrome users regularly update to the latest version of Google's browser.
Measurements from Clicky's analytics network of more than 500,000 Web sites show how Chrome users regularly update to the latest version of Google's browser. (Click to enlarge.) Clicky
Measurements from Clicky's analytics network of more than 500,000 Web sites show that older versions of Internet Explorer linger on the Internet.
Measurements from Clicky's analytics network of more than 500,000 Web sites show that older versions of Internet Explorer linger on the Internet. (Click to enlarge.) Clicky

NursingJobs recently launched a new jobs board and decided that IE7 support wasn't feasible. About 1.2 percent of its users are using IE7.

"The new site uses a more modern interface that supports the mobiles and tablets that our users increasingly prefer," Gentel said. "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."

Via The Latest