The latest up-to-date browser statistics for October 2009 are out and the popularity of IE6 as the internet browser of choice has dropped from 12.1% down to 10.6%.

Fat Heads are fully behind the complete annihilation of Internet Explorer 6 as are many of our web design brethren. We won't bore you with the complete history and list of problems that IE6 causes due to it's incompatibility as it is has already been well-documented on the web but we're glad to see it desperately hovering above the 10% mark. Unfortunately unlike IE5 and now IE7 (down to 14.7%), IE6, like Jason in Friday the 13th: Part XXVII, just won't die.

Due to the fact that it seemed to be the only decent browser around in early noughties IE6 was embraced by IT managers and software developers world-wide and unfortunately many businesses (major ones included) are now stuck with it as any attempts to upgrade to later Internet Explorer versions will cause substantial compatibility issues.

On top of this Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, designed IE6 so that it doesn't alert users to upgrade to IE7 (make that IE8 now) and therefore how can we expect Old Keith Rathbone down the end of the street, who's got his son-in-law's third-hand PC and isn't even sure what IE6 is let alone that he's using it, to make the leap into a whole new browsing experience.

Here at Fat Heads we are aware that IE6 is still hanging around the place like a bad smell. We build our websites to be compatible with all popular browsers (5% or more, grrrr) so we still have to go the extra mile to cater for IE6.

The great news for our clients is that, unlike many of our competitors, we do not charge an additional cost to develop for IE6. We do it as a matter of necessity on your behalf. Afterall, you might be using the latest snazzy browser to view your new company website but your customer - poor Chuck Kaplinski in the Delaware branch of Global Pork Balls Inc. - might be stuck on IE6 and his evil IT Manager, Biff Whispers, is refusing to budge on the expensive upgrade.

With a bit of luck, next month will see IE6 drop below the 10% line which would make a lovely Christmas gift for all web designers. In the meantime you can do your bit and make sure you've upgraded your browser to the latest version of Internet Explorer.

So for Chuck's sake, let's kill IE6 off for good.