[Koha] Should Koha support old versions of Internet Explorer?

[Coehoorn, Joel]

IE7 is not even supported by Microsoft any longer, and is only available on
operating systems that are also no longer support by Microsoft*. Even basic
security patches for that browser and OS are no longer published. I say
drop it.

IE8, by contrast, is still available for Windows 7 and still supported by
MS through January of 2016. I think we should give it at that long, but
probably no longer.

Another option may be to mark 3.16 or the upcoming 3.18 as an "LTS"
(long-term support) release, as other projects like Ubuntu, Debian, Moodle,
etc have started to do, but also mark it as the last release to support
IE8. That gives some more immediate relief moving forward for development
of future releases, but libraries that want or need to allow IE8 can have
confidence that the current release will continue to receive important
patches for some time.

* Note that it is still possible and supported to configure IE8 on Windows
7 to use the IE7 rendering engine.



  Joel Coehoorn
Director of Information Technology
402.363.5603
*jcoehoorn at york.edu <jcoehoorn at york.edu>*

 The mission of York College is to transform lives through
Christ-centered education and to equip students for lifelong service to
God, family, and society

On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 8:38 AM, Owen Leonard <oleonard at myacpl.org> wrote:

> There is a discussion happening on the developers list about whether
> Koha should continue to support old versions of Internet Explorer.
>
> While we don't generally test in Internet Explorer, in practice we
> attempt to fix browser incompatibility bugs reported for IE7 or
> higher.
>
> The benefit, from the developers' point of view, of dropping support
> for IE7 (released in 2006) and maybe even IE8 (released in 2009) would
> be our ability to upgrade certain third-party libraries on which Koha
> is built, enhancing our ability to modernize the interface.
>
> However, we don't want to unnecessarily exclude users who are forced
> to use IE7 or IE8. I would like to solicit your opinions on the
> matter:
>
> - In your use of Koha are you required to use any version of Internet
> Explorer and if so what version?
> - In your use of Koha do you work with library patrons who are
> required to use any version of Internet Explorer?
> - In your opinion what should be the minimum supported version of
> Internet Explorer?
>
> I'm not counting votes, but I am interested in hearing everyone's opinions.
>
> Thanks,
>
>   Owen
>
> --
> Web Developer
> Athens County Public Libraries
> http://www.myacpl.org
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