Save The Developers: Upgrade Your Browser

You'd be surprised how much legacy code and tags make up a lot of popular Web applications and sites. All of that old data can sometimes slow an app from loading or bog down a Web developer from streamlining their code, and the only reason many developers have to leave it all in when they make improvements is to support older Web browsers. Enter Save The Developers, a Web campaign to get users to upgrade their browsers and to provide Web developers tools to encourage their visitors to do the same.

Save The Developers was born from the Stop IE6 Campaign, a similar campaign designed to tell the world why Internet Explorer 6 needed to vanish from the face of the Web. The campaign has since grown to include a number of popular browsers, and Save The Developers suggests you use your choice of popular browsers, as long as it's not Internet Explorer 6 or earlier. The site provides links to download Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari, and even Internet Explorer 7. One click will take you to the respective browser's download page.

For developers and Web designers, Save The Developers hosts a script that Web designers and developers can run from their site or download and host on their own that will prompt visitors in Internet Explorer 6 to upgrade their browsers. When a site detects that a visitor is using IE6, a brief message descends from the top of the page in the upper right corner inviting them to read why they should upgrade immediately. The campaign also posts regularly on Twitter, where they enlist the aid of other Web developers in translating and adjusting the upgrade script, and organize like-minded developers to stop supporting IE6 and earlier browsers.

Save The Developers is a completely grassroots effort, and the campaign doesn't accept donations or contributions. The campaign does accept the help of developers who can translate their script and site into multiple languages. Save The Developers already has a pretty hefty list of supporters; Web companies large and small have their logos on the campaign's Supporters page, and new Web development houses are signing on to support the cause every day.

I'm all for the campaign to use modern browsers and reduce user's reliance on old browsers, but the Save The Developers campaign could do a lot more than evangelize upgrading as a solution for everyone's problems. While there are significant security and usability benefits to be gained from ditching and old browser in favor of a new one, it would be good to see the developers behind Save The Developers get together to help developers who are stuck working with legacy applications or sites find alternatives for their companies or develop new ones that are standards-compliant.

For example, one company that I work for forbids its employees from using IE7 because their accounting application still doesn't support it. Luckily we can download Firefox, but because there's little support for developers looking to modernize their Web apps, there's no hurry in a lot of companies to ditch their old browsers. Even so, if you're a developer and you're tired of your visitors complaining about features that don't work in IE5.5 or IE6, Save The Developers gives you a place to commiserate.