Comment by Marco Alka on "Why are you using an old browser?"

I see three major groups of people who need software for old browser generations.

Your boss or customer. They will dictate how the software should work. You can state your opinion and give them your advice, however ultimately, they have the last word. They might want to target a specific group of people you are not aware of, so they might request legacy support.
People who are not tech-savvy. Mostly older people. They bought a computer 10 years ago, and it is still working fine. They never understood what "update" means, because they can still use the computer for all their needs. Why investigate time into something which works? You wouldn't upgrade your drilling machine, would you? If you want to target these people, you cannot just prompt them to install a later version, because they might be lacking the know-how. This problem was already addressed by self-updating software (browsers, Windows 10, etc.), but it will take some more time until all the old computers and software have finally disappeared.
Business users. They usually have company-policies and default browsers which they are forced to use. Very often, IE11 is still standard. If you want to write enterprise software, then you have to write it in a way those people can use it, hence it has to run on whatever browser the company you work for uses. There is no room for discussion.

While you as a developer can always decide that your very own product only runs on a fully functional HTML5-enabled browser with WebGL, WebASM, etc. enabled, other people might chose differently because of reasons important to them. If they pay you, you better do your best to support their decision ;)

Excellent points. Thanks for calling my attention to these!

I do have to ask another question though - why cater to the technologically inept (as in case 2). Somebody who cannot update their browser is surely not going to input their credit card info into an online form, or use an interactive ui, so the only cases I can think of where older folks that aren't used to computers are the target are sites that are just displaying information because they can access them and don't have to interact much.

I presently work at a school and the issue of older teachers being unable to use the computers is a constant challenge, but as it is a requirement of 2017 to use computers (as our business as a school cannot function properly if teachers cannot input grade and attendance information and upload lesson plans) they simply MUST learn and adapt to using computers.

Can you give me some examples of other situations in which older, non-tech-savvy individuals are the target or predicted customer/user? (I ask this so as to see your examples and hopefully get a better understanding of possibilities of the market as I am very inexperienced). Thanks!

Somebody who cannot update their browser is surely not going to input their credit card info into an online form

Why shouldn't they? Just think of Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Netflix or Spotify. The average user is not interested in how or why it works. They just want to get their stuff done. They want to watch a movie? Input credit card info once and just buy all the things :D Amazon works on very old browsers and you do not have to be particular tech-savvy to be able to use it. Same with Facebook, except that they use your personal info and ads as payment.

But I think it would be reasonable to expect anyone who is shopping via Amazon.com to be savvy enough to upgrade their browser, no?

Alex Harrison I wouldn't say so. Shopping is something they want to do. But updating the browser (or OS or anything else for that matter)? Why? They can use Amazon, and updates are troublesome. They take forever, you can't shop while its updating and you can use Amazon even if you don't update. Updates are a waste of time, just click them away and be done with it.

There are still people using Win XP and Win 7. Just go ask them why they don't upgrade to Win10. Try to argue with security features and important updates. You will find that most of them have no interest in that stuff and just want to do their thing in a familiar environment. Especially, the upgrade would cost money. Why pay when stuff works?

So, if you still want to reach such people, you better stay backward-compatible. If you don't, others will and make the money you could have made.

Hahahaha excellent points. I forget how people are sometimes. Thanks for reminding me

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