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
213
2021
244
2022
268
2023
235
2024
156
2025
219
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.