I have read lots these past few weeks on IE6, seeing if it was really *that bad* to make it look right. I have just learned HTML and CSS this past year so I've been spoiled to start with basically CSS3 and HTML5, and I can do some really cool stuff super fast. I'm no IE6 master and I don't have years of experience with IE. So I thought it'd take a little time to figure out all the hacks to IE6/7 discovered and just implement them.

But it's way harder than that (or maybe just way too much work). I'd have to either completely rebuild my design using "Internet Explorer 'Principles'", or cut out a lot of the neat things I could do using more recent technologies.

For a million and one other reasons, everyone who builds things online seems to think IE should die.

My question is, why *can't* businesses upgrade their browsers?

When I work with businesses, they almost always resist *the first time* I ask, but 5 seconds later I'll show them what it looks like on my computer and talk about how great the latest stuff is (how much more secure later browser are, all the famous IE security cases, how much smoother and faster they new browsers are, how the IE team has basically missed the boat entirely, how much smoother business processes run, etc.), and they get excited! And within a few seconds they're up and running with Chrome or something.

So can businesses *not* upgrade for some reasons? What are the reasons a business *cannot* upgrade?

* The main reason I think of is because they have an old version of windows. But a) wasn't there [a legal case against this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft)? and b) somebody must have figured out how to install Chrome or Firefox on ancient versions of Windows by now.
* Another reason is ROI. Basically that it costs too much to change. But is there any basis for that, because it actually seems that if you were using a cell phone from 2001 vs. an iPhone, you could do a lot more much quicker and easier, so you could focus your time on more "valuable" tasks. Same with browsers, it seems even more valuable to upgrade because it will save you time and hassle and virus software and restarting your computer and IT guys in the end.
* Last reason is market share. But if everyone was convinced of the *value* of time saved, and problems/issues/viruses avoided, and the ROI of user experience, then ultimately the market share would decrease [like we're seeing](http://about.digg.com/blog/much-ado-about-ie6).

**Update**

Side question: Do these companies with IE6/7 generally have javascript enabled? That way I could at least hack something quick together.

**Update**

I whipped together a page to help non computer savvy people make the change... hopefully :). Check it out at [InternetEnabled.org](http://internetenabled.org). Just started, has a long way to go. [Code is on Github](http://github.com/viatropos/internet-enabled).