WordPress has announced the opening of discussions regarding the potential discontinuation of support for Internet Explorer 11. Dropping support is expected to enhance WordPress performance, improve user experience, and ease the workload for developers.
High Maintenance for Developers
Maintaining the compatibility of WordPress code for Internet Explorer 11 demands additional effort from developers to support a rapidly declining user base. Instead of allocating resources to support a small number of users, WordPress plans to alleviate developers from the burden of accommodating IE 11.
There will be benefits for both WordPress users and visitors to WordPress websites.
The WordPress announcement highlighted several advantages:
“Dropping support would result in smaller scripts, lower maintenance burden, and faster build times.
For example, a recent test showed that not transpiling the scripts to IE11 led to a net reduction of nearly 84kB in the Gutenberg JavaScript built files, representing a 7.78% total decrease in size. These scripts have seen size reductions of up to 60%, with an average reduction of 24%.
This result is largely due to a heavy reliance on transpilers, as further explained by Jason Miller, Web DevRel at Google.
Furthermore, dropping support would render the currently included polyfill script obsolete, reducing the size of enqueued scripts by an additional 102kB.
The smaller downloads would benefit all users, particularly those on slower networks or using less powerful computing devices. We expect dropping IE11 support to improve performance for the vast majority of users.”
Downsides of Dropping Support
Discontinuing support for IE 11 isn’t without its drawbacks. Some users, including those in various countries, may be legally required to use IE 11.
According to the ongoing discussion:
“Major institutions like banks, government bodies, and educational institutions may be unable to upgrade due to legal requirements, depending on the country.
This highlights the need for a policy that considers both data-driven approaches and the affected user bases while weighing the potential benefits for the broader web.”
These discussions began 16 months ago when a developer ticket was created, leading to thorough deliberation and the decision to implement a nag screen encouraging users to upgrade their browser.
The nag screen was designed to warn users about using an insecure browser and urge them to update.
As stated in the initial discussion:
“The maintainability cost of IE11 (in terms of time, bundle size, and more) is very high, and IE11 is approaching the 1% threshold in worldwide usage… We should consider adding a notice to discourage its usage.”
Another development team member acknowledged that government clients were required to use IE 11 at that time:
“After discussing in the accessibility meeting on November 29, 2019, we agree that encouraging users to move away from IE 11 if they have the option is a good idea.
However, we want to distinguish this from ending support for IE 11. IE 11 remains a required platform for government clients as long as Microsoft supports it and is still widely used by screen reader users.
The nag should consider that some users may not have the option to change, be permanently dismissible, and be filterable.”
Screenshot of Nag Screen
WordPress is Seeking Feedback
The announcement mentions that feedback is being sought, and no decision has been made yet about discontinuing IE 11 support. WordPress is currently encouraging community discussion and feedback.
WordPress noted:
“This is a tough decision, and we want to gather feedback from as many affected voices in the community as possible.
…Once we’ve collected feedback, the next step will be to consolidate and decide on the policy.”
Citation
Read the official WordPress announcement:
Discussion: Dropping support for IE11
