This is what we do too, but this isn't going to kill IE6. It's not a problem that sites support it, it's a problem that large companies and non-techies don't want to or know how to upgrade. What I do for all my sites is add http://pushuptheweb.com/ to all my pages and customize the message to say they're not getting the full experience and that their browser may be unsecure.
I disagree, I think that techniques like this do contribute to killing IE6. The reason that corporations don't upgrade their browsers is pretty simple: they don't have to. As it stands now, IE6 is "good enough" for their employees to do whatever it is they need to do.
The more websites that drop IE6 support, the more IE6 becomes "not good enough", and the more pressure accumulates for corporations to upgrade. Right now it's more practical in many environments for the IT group to stick with IE6 than upgrade. The day it becomes more practical to upgrade than stay put is the day IE6 dies.
However, large corporations that aren't upgrading probably aren't encouraging, nor do they want, their workers to be visiting cutting edge sites. Usually the computers/browsers are used for company intranet stuff, which doesn't require advanced features. If anything keeping workers from visiting new, cool, cutting edge sites (regardless of what they may be) would actually be incentive to stay with IE6. I do concede, though, that there probably is a fair amount of necessary browsing to other client websites, distributors, etc that needs done.
Security: "Complex software will always have vulnerabilities and motivated adversaries will always work to discover and take advantage of them. There is no evidence that upgrading away from the latest fully patched versions of Internet Explorer to other browsers will make users more secure. Regular software patching and updating will help defend against the latest threats. The Government continues to work with Microsoft and other internet browser suppliers to understand the security of the products used by HMG, including Internet Explorer and we welcome the work that Microsoft are continuing do on delivering security solutions which are deployed as quickly as possible to all Internet Explorer users."
Cost: "It is not straightforward for HMG departments to upgrade IE versions on their systems. Upgrading these systems to IE8 can be a very large operation, taking weeks to test and roll out to all users. To test all the web applications currently used by HMG departments can take months at significant potential cost to the taxpayer. It is therefore more cost effective in many cases to continue to use IE6 and rely on other measures, such as firewalls and malware scanning software, to further protect public sector internet users."
Pretty hard to argue against without deteriorating into a "no it isn't", "yes it is", which gets us nowhere.
So with the UK government, and it's 'standards' for it's various departments, standing firm, cautious businesses will follow the same path as well.
The more websites that drop IE6 support, the less people will use those websites. Facebook and Youtube are fairly safe in ignorning IE6 since that makes it easier for businesses and government departments to stop non-business use of their infrastructure.
Talk of raising prices to cater for IE6 suit me just fine. I've been dealing with IE6 since it was launched, so I'm fairly fluent in dealing with the issues it has. It's part of my job as a web developer, to build websites that work in web browsers.
Supporting IE6 isn't a big deal. It's all about clean separation of layers, progressive enhancement, and a decent understanding of IE6's foibles. Unless you've chosen to use a framework or code-generation toolkit that gets those basics wrong, and prevents you from fixing the corresponding HTML, CSS and JavaScript layers.
Those arguments can be used to put off adopting any technical advance. While it may be wise not to follow a policy of early adoption, eventually there's a tipping point that will force one to embrace the present. The disadvantages of protecting IE6 will soon outweigh any advantage of using it. Hopefully, the UK government will be lucky when it pins itself to the next platform.
