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ProtonMail is dropping support for Internet Explorer 11

131 points| ccnafr | 6 years ago |protonmail.com

59 comments

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m_st|6 years ago

Nice for them!

We launched a web application for construction companies in Switzerland a few months ago. And quickly learned the hard way that we have to improve the IE compatibility. The last 90 days IE11 was used for 36% of all traffic.

Too bad the new Edge isn't called IE12 and automatically deployed as a replacement through Windows Update :-)

sbr464|6 years ago

Part of the issue is the limited installation compatibility. You can't directly install Edge on Win7/8, also Server 2012, 2016, (used by some businesses as a terminal server or virtual desktop host. That has definitely slowed it's installation base.

watermelon0|6 years ago

Sadly, Edge is completely different from IE, and still cannot replace it in most cases. There are still too many public websites (e.g. online banking and other sites using digital signatures), and even more enterprise intranet sites, that require legacy ActiveX, Java applets, or Silverlight.

I'm fairly sure Microsoft is not fan of IE either, but they will still be stuck with it for many years. The most they can probably do, is to not have it installed by default in future versions of Windows 10, but I have a feeling that it will stick around for longer than IE6.

gridlockd|6 years ago

How many of those 36% would insist on using IE11 though? What would happen if you just forced them to use Chrome? Chrome might actually already be installed, just not preferred.

jumbopapa|6 years ago

I'd be pretty shocked if any ProtonMail users used IE.

jsnell|6 years ago

It's the first bullet point in their reasons for dropping the support. About 1% of their users are on IE.

realusername|6 years ago

Yes that seems a pretty odd combination, you want more secure email but using IE11 at the same time?

jaden|6 years ago

The typical scenario is forced use by enterprises where the employees have no choice. But now that Windows 7 is on its last legs, this may be less of an issue.

Supermighty|6 years ago

I understand them wanting to discontinue browsers that have very low usage and have discontinued support from Microsoft, but I can't help but feel a little sad about the narrowing browser engine ecosystem.

anon777778|6 years ago

Last major update for IE11 was like 6 years ago? Supporting anything related to this browser is painful and is blocking multiple new web features (or even not so new).

I would love to use CSS Grid without thinking whether it will work however it happens that IE11 has only partial (and buggy) support for it.

I believe that supporting IE11 blocks innovation.

ravenstine|6 years ago

Exactly how many browser engines do we need? There's currently Blink(Chrome|Edge|Brave), Gecko(Firefox), and WebKit(Safari and various OSS browsers). With web technology standards, it doesn't really make sense that there would be that much competition, so having 3 competing engines seems sufficient to me.

perardi|6 years ago

How exactly does it help anybody to to support little-used, out-of-date, insecure browsers?

shados|6 years ago

Definitely. It's also a lot more about the second part (discontinued support, and the fact it sucks to develop against) than the first (very low usage).

At my company we're in this weird spot where Chrome has overwhelming adoption but IE11 has more usage than some of the other modern browsers. For example, if we only went by usage (or even more so: conversion/$$$), we'd be dropping Firefox support before we drop IE11.

That obviously doesn't feel great. I don't want to be in a "This website is optimized for Chrome in 2560x1440 resolution and 32 bit colors!", reminiscent of the old Netscape vs IE days. But we're getting very close to it. Firefox's usage is dwindling. Safari is pretty bad at anything except saving battery. Chrome is good but Google is pretty sketchy with how they bully their feature requests into the standards. IE11 can go to hell, but I still want people to test across browsers. It's happening less and less.

throw03172019|6 years ago

At least they still support Edge. Although Edge is moving towards to a Chromium based engine..

ahelwer|6 years ago

Maybe I'll be able to reach other ProtonMail users here - does anyone else have persistent issues logging in to the web client? I use Firefox, LastPass, and Authy for 2FA. I have to try 6-7 times to log in every time, it drives me nuts. If it weren't for the mobile app I would have dumped this service long ago (for which I pay $50/year). This is the only site where I have issues logging in.

a-ve|6 years ago

Might be an issue with LastPass. Bank login pages in my country acted weirdly with Lastpass. I've since switched to Bitwarden and haven't faced any issues.

keawade|6 years ago

I've been using ProtonMail for about a year and I've never had an issue logging in. The web client is the primary interface I use.

anonuser123456|6 years ago

Do you have multiple protonmail accounts? Lastpass behaves poorly when you have multiple accounts at the same domain. It will overwrite the password selection with the default/other account if you login too quickly.

ahakki|6 years ago

I’ve stopped using ProtonMail because the mobile client (iOS) kept logging me out at seemingly random intervals. With two passwords and TOTP it became a real hassle. Especially as notifications would stop, and I would only notice once I opened the app (why would I if I don’t get a notification?).

craftyguy|6 years ago

Why don't you try contacting protonmail's support rather than being offtopic here?

elliotec|6 years ago

I have never had problems logging in. I use my ProtonMail credentials in Firefox, Chrome, and Brave, and FaceId on the iPhone. Zero issues in over a year of using it.

Have you tried contacting their support team?