[TYPO3-core] TYPO3 releases compatibility with PHP, MySQL and Browsers

[Jo Hasenau]

> So let's see where IE8 is bundled:
>   - Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (see above)
>   - Windows Vista first Release - end of mainstream support  April 2012
>   - Windows Vista SP 1 - end of mainstream Support: April 2012

You forgot Windows 7 that originally shipped with IE8 as well.

> Assuming that most businesses directly will go from Windows XP to 
> Windows 7 (like TYPO3 CMS 4.5 to 6.2) and the fact that Microsoft ended 
> its unpayed support already I come to the conclusion, that there is no 
> business value in keeping support for IE8 in TYPO3 Backend until 2016.

You are right that most of the businesses skipped Vista and directly went to Windows 7. But even though they might have installed service packs as well, this does not necessarily mean they upgraded the IE versions accordingly. So many of the "enterprise" clients are on WIn7/IE8.

This is due to the fact that many applications they are using, recently have been upgraded to work with IE8 instead of IE6 due to the end of support for Windows XP. Many of them are designed to work with one browser version exclusively, which is why we can not expect them to change the compatible version again in the near future, since we are talking about 7 digit amounts in development and licensing.

So IMHO it will be a good idea to at least support IE8 until the end of 6.2 LTS, which is still far away from the end of the official Windows 7 support in 2020, but a good compromise.

Just my 2 cents

Joey