[stephen_g]

I think a lot of people just don't know enough to upgrade their browser - I see people using IE9 at work even though we are allowed to install whatever software we want...

IE really needs silent auto-update, and to actually release more often...

[JPKab]

If you think this, then you don't understand enterprises. The vast majority of users you will encounter, even in their 60's, are aware, through friends, kids, family, etc that this "Google Chrome thing makes the internet faster".

They want it, but your typical large enterprise foces IE down their throats, courtesy of 20+ years of rape by the legions of IT guys who, through the cognitive dissonance inducing Microsoft certification/training/tools process now think that everything Microsoft is magic.

If you are reading this, and 3 years ago you were telling everyone at work how amazing Silverlight was going to be, you are part of the problem. If you were talking about how great Sharepoint was going to be, you are part of the problem.

FYI: Most people working in the Pentagon are forced to use IE8. Just in case anyone here had any illusions about how deep Microsofts' shitty certificate-holding fanboy culture has penetrated our government.

[prawks]

> your typical large enterprise foces IE down their throats, courtesy of 20+ years of rape by the legions of IT guys who, through the cognitive dissonance inducing Microsoft certification/training/tools process now think that everything Microsoft is magic

I can't speak for every company, but in my experience there's much more to it than that.

A large part of the problem is that many of the tools leveraged by Enterprises (which are purchased from vendors) to develop web applications are extremely brittle and sensitive to the user's browser. When you talk about pushing a new version of IE, every web tool in the company (easily dozens) needs to be examined to determine the impact and cost related to making sure it works with the new version. This often means pushing new versions of these vendor packages as well, and the costs associated with that planning (think of the management effort required) and implementation.

In many Enterprises, this is infrastructure overhead and is largely avoided (it's a huge headache/cost) until absolutely necessary. "Absolutely necessary" means when the vendor (MSoft) stops supporting that browser version. Which doesn't happen until it is well past obsolete.

Of course, management gets many of these concepts from those Microsoft Certified developers, but that's not the whole story.

[yuhong]

In many Enterprises, this is infrastructure overhead and is largely avoided (it's a huge headache/cost) until absolutely necessary. "Absolutely necessary" means when the vendor (MSoft) stops supporting that browser version. Which doesn't happen until it is well past obsolete.

And by then the Windows version will have ended support too.

[mpyne]

> FYI: Most people working in the Pentagon are forced to use IE8

And in a different DoD office a few miles away, IE7. :(

[bunderbunder]

At places I've worked they absolutely do know how to upgrade, but they have to hang onto IE8 because there are sites on the corporate intranet which don't work with IE9+. So the usual compromise is to hold IE at version 8 in order to be able to use those apps, and install some other browser to use everywhere else.