Skip Internet Explorer for Web Dev. Save $100,000

Microsoft Internet ExplorerFrom the ‘Saving Money by Avoiding IE’ files:

For years, web developers have had to build sites that work on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. It’s something that at one time, held us Linux users in a bind as sites big and small claimed to only work on IE.

The tides are turning my friends and IE-only sites are now a shunned splinter group. The strong showings for Firefox and Chrome (both of which are Linux friendly) means IE first isn’t always the way things are done today.

Case in point – I read an interesting story today in Canada’s National Post about a new startup that is avoiding developing for IE since it costs more money.

“To save more than $100,000, 4ormat decided to skip Internet Explorer, opting to only allow users to access its service through Mozilla’s Firefox and Google Chrome browsers,” the article states.

Even better is the fact that the company got few complaints — meaning that IE support isn’t a big deal anymore.

This is fantastic news for Linux users (who can’t run IE) and good news overall that the hegemony of IE is now a thing of the past. Reality of course is that today, desktop users run multiple browsers and developers go mobile first (WebKit/iOS/Android) first in many instances.

It’s also interesting to see how much more it costs to build an IE website. It’s shocking that it could cost $100,000 more isn’t it?

 

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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