Should I concern myself with old browser support?

#1

Hello again!
I have another question:

Should I concern myself with old browser support?

I already know that his question has been asked billion of times but still I want to know specific things about Web Development and not about Software Development.

There are many people out there like old banks who still use Internet Explorer 8, Windows XP

And most stuff from Modern Web Development are not going to be supported on those old browsers

  • such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript 6

Even if there methods available, for me its like this:

  • More research
  • More studying
  • Less time for other things

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not lazy, it’s just that I would prefer doing more research & studying for other frameworks/libraries, learning more about CSS3, Wire-framing, enter more examples here.

However, if you don’t provide support for old browsers, some people are going to be dissatisfied
(whether you work on a company or freelancing or creating your own projects as hobby)

And even if you explicitly say: Update your Browser or OS or switch to Firefox/Chrome and there many people who don’t even know how to install a program.

To be honest, this is quite understandable even if we live in the era of technology and IT. Not all people know how to install/use software, a quick example is of my room-mate who is studying about Business, he still uses Internet Explorer and has no idea how to even change a wallpaper but he knows many things about Businesses and Management
I’m not criticising him I’m just using him as an example about how all people are different in our real world .

So in the end, should I concern myself with old browser support and if yes, what should I do?

#2

I would say no, unless you have to.

Supporting older browsers could be a big pain especially if your app is large.

I would instead focus on other aspects.

#3

It takes just 5 minutes to set up babel and babel polyfill. No reason why we shouldn’t support if we’re able to.

#4

Babel only takes care of javascript, plus there’s the issue of bloating the JS with large and inefficient polyfills that other browsers don’t need. CSS can be fixed in a few cases with autoprefixers, but if the browser doesn’t support a CSS attribute or selector, there’s little that can be done about it other than trying to degrade gracefully. Forget about using CSS grids in IE8 for example.

#5

You could try something like polyfill.io, which loads polyfills only for the required features, depending on the user agent.

This is sadly true at the moment, but with the advent of CSS Houdini, it hopefully won’t be for much longer. Of course, that will only work for browsers released after the relevant Houdini feature has been added (current browser support detailed here).

#6