Old Browser Support

Discussions center on the debate over supporting legacy web browsers versus prioritizing modern features, including trade-offs in compatibility, user experience, and development effort.

📉 Falling 0.5x Web Development
3,510
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#8733
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
9
2008
29
2009
83
2010
133
2011
216
2012
254
2013
204
2014
173
2015
226
2016
195
2017
224
2018
187
2019
225
2020
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2021
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2022
268
2023
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2024
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2025
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2026
17

Keywords

IE6 JS IE7 HTML5 NEED HTTP JavaScript NOT SSL IE browsers browser old older web versions supporting compatibility support supported

Sample Comments

_betty_ Feb 3, 2018 View on HN

what's wrong with giving older browsers a different experience?

eyelidlessness Sep 21, 2016 View on HN

There's nothing lazy about supporting older browser versions.

pabs3 Jun 28, 2025 View on HN

I wonder when browsers are going to start dropping support for old-web stuff.

Narretz Feb 19, 2015 View on HN

If you want new features, you cannot expect old browsers to be supported, that's just the way it works.

gblargg May 1, 2025 View on HN

Props to them for not locking out older browsers as many sites are doing these days.

tomjen3 May 14, 2015 View on HN

Doesn't that mean giving up old browsers though?

couchand Sep 25, 2017 View on HN

It may be hard to imagine, but even today not every user is running a browser built in the last year.

boucher Feb 1, 2011 View on HN

Look behind you, we're already building them. Not everything needs to work in every old browser.

asto Jun 25, 2012 View on HN

Backward compatibility with really old browsers is all I can think of.

originalsimba Mar 9, 2018 View on HN

writing for old browsers is irresponsible. The only browsers which should be supported are modern browsers that update themselves by default.