UK.gov sticks to IE6 cos it's more 'cost effective'

Cost effective Why do people think upgrading IE or any other browser costs millions of dollars? Its a free download.

 

Ahh, but you forget that IT would have to upgrade during downtime (at night likely), and, would probably need to be paid overtime. Do that across all government agencies and properties and you're looking at a pretty penny. Then, you have to take into account the applications they use that demand IE6 might need to be upgraded as well, since they were written long before IE8 was born. This is the problem with governments and companies, they get "comfortable", and, as a matter of fact, lazy and cheap. So, they end up setting themselves up for trouble.

 

For those who don't know, the main reason for not ditching IE6 is because most of the *in house* software used in our numerous government departments was written years ago specifically for IE6, it cannot be used with IE8. Therefor it is not simply the cost of installing and setting up computers to use IE8, it is the cost - and time - required to rewrite many of the software programs in use. A software program that I used in the early 1990's is still in use today, it still does it's job but it was written for pre XP systems and IE6 or earlier.
And no, I don't work for the government anymore thank goodness.

 

Having suffered a long time in this crap house they call the UK, I can say with all honesty and a lifetime of pain that the British Government and spin off admin. departments are mindless cretins that have a bottomless pit of stupidity on which to draw. The whole establishment is a grossly overpaid disgrace.

We have to suffer the incompetence of working with old software as DarkStar says in his post. What a joke ! All these Government departments plonking away at IE6 when the world has moved on by years !

Have another look at http://www.debtbombshell.com/ - THAT will show you how COST EFFECTIVE our collection of clowns are.

John Bull
If all that comes out of this thread shows what a silly little insignificant country the UK is, then all will be well worth while.

 

There is one fundamental flaw in central government's handling of this issue. They have misled themselves by believing that if they cut back on IT spending (among other widespread cuts) this will result in, or at least contribute to overall savings, whereas, in reality, the converse is true, since cutbacks unfortunately include neglect of security considerations...it's like "Russian roulette"...you could be lucky, but failure is, potentially very damaging.
I've seen a little at first hand....I'm forever banging on at them to update...especially Adobe Reader (they're using v.7.0!!), all to no avail, alas.
And the instances of data loss and neglect nationwide are all too numerous........today's reg makes me think..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/03/leicester_city_councillors_ipad/
until they lose or have their ipads nicked down at the pub e.g.
Overall, I believe it's not "rocket-science" for the government to have a roadmap for IT rolling upgrades....it's absolutely essential since virtually the entire world revolves around and relies upon both computers and the internet
nowadays. Come on Davey Cameron....you know it makes sense!!

 

Indeed it can

 

No offense meant to your own love for IE6 Clone, but all those dusty old offices of UK Gov. depts. echoing with the sounds of eager fingers tapping away on IE6 keyboards, have an inspiring motto pinned up for all to see, just below that immortal poster of the pointing mustachioed Lord Kitchener saying "Your Country Needs You" :-

"I`m walking backwards to Christmas"

John B