Will Fastmail force me to use a 'modern' browser?

[TolloNodre]

Google just announced that by August 1st they're going to start supporting only 'current' versions of most browsers:

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/...-browsers.html

I'm concerned that Fastmail is planning to follow suit. My employer just rolled out IE7 and I can guarantee they're not going to IE8 or 9 anytime soon.

Is there a roadmap somewhere that someone can point me to?

Thanks...

[janusz]

This isn't going to help you, but anybody who "just rolled out IE7" (release date 18 October 2006) should be shot (or worse....).

[David]

Fastmail have always supported old hardware and software in the past, though I have no idea if (or not) this is official policy.

[TolloNodre]

Originally Posted by janusz

This isn't going to help you, but anybody who "just rolled out IE7" (release date 18 October 2006) should be shot (or worse....).

Easy to say, but in the real world you don't always have a choice. We're stuck with what our vendors will support.

(Not only IE7 - but they disabled tabbed browsing because some vendor systems can't handle it.)

I'm an old client/server guy - back then everyone complained that installing new clients was 'too much work' and 'costs too much' to support.

"Let's move everything to the browser!" they screamed. "It'll be easy to support!"

Now we rely on multiple information systems but all of them using the same browser as the front end. So we've just substituted one set of problems for another....

[janusz]

Originally Posted by TolloNodre

t in the real world you don't always have a choice. We're stuck with what our vendors will support.

Very true, unfortunately...

OTOH, would knowing that Fastmail has a roadmap somewhere really help you? Would you insist that IE8 should be installed because after a certain date you cannot access your personal email account without it ?

[Bond J]

Originally Posted by TolloNodre

Easy to say, but in the real world you don't always have a choice. We're stuck with what our vendors will support.

(Not only IE7 - but they disabled tabbed browsing because some vendor systems can't handle it.)

I'm an old client/server guy - back then everyone complained that installing new clients was 'too much work' and 'costs too much' to support.

"Let's move everything to the browser!" they screamed. "It'll be easy to support!"

Now we rely on multiple information systems but all of them using the same browser as the front end. So we've just substituted one set of problems for another....

I think fastmail will work fine with older browsers.

And as far as your company is concerned, really IE 7? Maybe its time to change the vendor.

[TolloNodre]

Originally Posted by janusz

Very true, unfortunately...

OTOH, would knowing that Fastmail has a roadmap somewhere really help you? Would you insist that IE8 should be installed because after a certain date you cannot access your personal email account without it ?

No, I would know at what point to stop using Fastmail and switch to something else. Or just setup Fastmail as a forwarding service to something else...haven't thought it that far out.

As David mentioned, Fastmail's philosophy in the past has been to support old browsers. If that philosophy has changed, I'd like to know.

[TolloNodre]

Originally Posted by Bond J

I think fastmail will work fine with older browsers.

And as far as your company is concerned, really IE 7? Maybe its time to change the vendor.

Vendor sofware is tied to vendor hardware (inventory system), which is excellent. Again, not going to happen. And the software isn't bad - works fine...so tough to get bean counters to spend money on change.

My only hope is when XP finally dies in 2014.

[neilj]

The new AJAX interface currently in development (as used at mail.opera.com) will only support modern browsers (Opera 11+, IE8+, FF3.5+, Safari 4+ etc.). However, we will always ensure you can access your email from older browsers as well using the current interface; we just won't be putting any future development work into it.

Neil.

[sundr]

I hope FM will get a slimmer interface than the current Opera one. The gras at the top is not necessary, as are the icons on the buttons. I hope those things can be switched off at least. I'd also like duller colours (like the current interface).

I wonder if Opera will keep FM as a brand or make it "Opera Mail". The brand FM is not that important to me but I would surely prefer it to remain.

[rblon]

Originally Posted by TolloNodre

My employer just rolled out IE7 and I can guarantee they're not going to IE8 or 9 anytime soon.

My guess would be that upgrading from IE7 to IE8 is a much easier step than it was from IE6 to IE7.

Your employer is not only who stuck to IE6 a very long time (and relatively a lot of companies are still using IE6). It is a shame Windows doesn't support several version if IE (probably because it is too much integrated with the OS), as that would have made an upgrade possible while continuing support for legacy browser applications.

[B4its2L8]

Originally Posted by sundr

I hope FM will get a slimmer interface than the current Opera one. The gras at the top is not necessary, as are the icons on the buttons. I hope those things can be switched off at least. I'd also like duller colours (like the current interface).

And I hope there will be the option of having the look of the old FM interface (i.e. the option of turning off the folder list and navigating by a dropdown folder menu). I've been trying that things way with FM (old and new) and really like it.

[TolloNodre]

Originally Posted by neilj

The new AJAX interface currently in development (as used at mail.opera.com) will only support modern browsers (Opera 11+, IE8+, FF3.5+, Safari 4+ etc.). However, we will always ensure you can access your email from older browsers as well using the current interface; we just won't be putting any future development work into it.

Neil.

Excellent! Exactly what I was hoping for....

Thanks!

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by janusz

... Would you insist that IE8 should be installed because after a certain date you cannot access your personal email account without it ?

The need to access various sources of information on the web is a better excuse. But instead of asking to upgrade to IE8 it can be installing Firefox (or Chrome etc.) to all users. The users would use IE7 to access the Intranet systems that require its excellent standards-incompatibility, and Firefox (or whatever other non-standards-incompatible browser) for any other kind of browsing). (And perhaps separating users' casual web browsing in a different browser than the one used to access internal systems is also good for security, especially when the enterprise systems rely on a browser that's way behind on security).

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by rblon

My guess would be that upgrading from IE7 to IE8 is a much easier step than it was from IE6 to IE7.

Your employer is not only who stuck to IE6 a very long time (and relatively a lot of companies are still using IE6). It is a shame Windows doesn't support several version if IE (probably because it is too much integrated with the OS), as that would have made an upgrade possible while continuing support for legacy browser applications.

It may be worth mentioning that, using technologies like Vmware ThinApp, it is possible to create (sandboxed) versions of multiple releases of IE. I have done so. If a business is forced to stay with IE6 on computers that have access to the Internet, such methods are probably even recommended.