Sent a friend of mine to read my book -- he was, I figured, one of maybe two people on the planet who'd really appreciate the work, but I'll never know because he couldn't see it, he couldn't even see my masterful marketing muck ...

He's using Netscape 4.7

It wasn't something I took lightly, but it had to be done: I walked away from supporting Netscape 4.x browsers. It's just so broken in so many ways, a battered battle-axe of the browser-wars, worth a respectful nod, but nonetheless, it's time to let go, move on, life is for living. Some time ago I reasoned that I'm not a commercial site and while I'd like to be read by anyone with an interest, NS4 support amounted to supporting a completely parallel universe, a universe of broken almost-compliance just close enough to be difficult to subvert.

Just so you know I'm not pandering to the populists, I've likewise abandoned special considerations for the brokeness of Microsoft browsers both old and new, and for the very same reason. Web standards are good, fair and really very sufficient to the task. And they are standard, do it right the first time and do it only once. If Microsoft pays me for the extra bother to sidestep their programmer errors, then maybe I'll reconsider (ditto for NS4).

In the meantime ...

If I was a public servant or megacorp ethically or financially bound to ubiquitous access then yes, I'd cling a bit harder, but then again, maybe, sometimes, well you just have to let go.

I see I'm not alone in this forward-think conclusion, and I probably hung on a lot longer than some; at a recent trip down to the big smoke, I dropped by the public reference library to use their free internet and was aghast to see them all running NS4 browsers, and doubly aghast at how many of my usual regular website waystations were almost completely inoperable. The world online has changed and before anyone screams 'accessibility' rest yourself assured it has changed for the better.

And the hard truth is, even for limited old hardware and even for people with the barest of software-install skills, there are browser options.

It takes guts to turn off your design in browsers that can’t handle it. And no matter how politely you word your “upgrade” message, some visitors will see it as an intrusion (and will see your having turned off the design as a “punishment”).

So, dear all you dear old NS4 friends who struggle with my belligerent overlapping text blocks and encroaching drifted images, please understand, it's not to punish or offend, it's not to slap anyone around for accidents of their birth, it's just a fact of net life: You can change your browser, and maybe the time is now.

We seek to hold the sky, but we never will

nor can we support all browsers forever.