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Anti-Internet Explorer 6 protests grow with online petition

Appeals for UK.gov to ditch aged browser

Opposition to the UK government’s continued endorsement of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 continues to mount, after a petition was submitted to Number 10 yesterday.

"We the undersigned petition the prime minister to encourage government departments to upgrade away from Internet Explorer 6," reads the online appeal that was kicked off by Dan Frydman, a managing director of web publishing contractor Inigo.

His company only ended support for IE 6 on Monday.

Frydman grumbled that the UK government should ditch the nine-year-old browser because of security flaws that leave users vulnerable to attack.

He claimed on the petition that UK.gov would convince “most of Europe” to follow its lead, if it were to dump IE 6 in the same way that German and French governments are currently corralling its departments away from the unloved browser.

However, as we reported yesterday, the UK government declared it was unmoved by security concerns surrounding IE 6. It claimed its system, along with regular MS updates, meant it was robust enough against the kind of attack that claimed over 30 corporate firms at the end of last year.

Google was one of the high-profile victims, and has since tried (but failed) to put the scares up China (where the attack is understood to have originated) before turning its back on supporting the old MS browser in its web apps.

At the same time, Microsoft too has been trying to shepherd users away from IE 6 and Windows XP - the operating system that refuses to die - in favour of its more recent software efforts.

But the company has also given IE 6 something of a reprieve. Microsoft will officially kill the browser in July 2014. Seems there's life in the old girl yet.

Meanwhile, Frydman's petition has gained nearly 800 signatures at time of writing. ®

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