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Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 was released in 2001.  Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch has indicated that IE6 will continue to receive Extended Support for the lifetime of Windows XP, which is currently planned to continue until August 4, 2014. As a nine-year old technology, it’s not surprising to hear that cyber-attacks may be targetted at potentially-serious security issues with this browser.  Microsoft has recently issued Security Advisory 979352 to address certain browser security issues. France’s Computer Emergency Response Team and Germany’s Federal Office for Security in Information Technology have recently issued official bulletins that advise users to switch from Internet Explorer to an alternative browser.

Supporting Internet Explorer and IE6 with Oracle E-Business Suite

Our plans are to continue supporting IE6 with the E-Business Suite as long as Microsoft supports that browser.  We also plan to continue to certify updates to Internet Explorer with the E-Business Suite. Our challenge, though, is that there are over thirty different desktop client x browser x JRE release combinations that could be certified with every new E-Business Suite patch or update.  We do not have the resources to test every possible permutation comprehensively with every Apps patch, so we are forced to select a subset of combinations to rotate through our certification process.

What Are Your Plans?

This is where your feedback can make a lot of difference in helping us prioritize combinations to test with the E-Business Suite.  I’m particularly interested in your answers to the following questions:

  1. What browsers are primarily used in your organization?  
  2. Are you reassessing your desktop deployment standards in response to the latest news about IE? 
  3. If yes, what are your plans for retiring either Internet Explorer, generally, or IE6, specifically?

Please feel free to comment here or drop me a private email with your organization’s current perspectives on this.

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The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction.  It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract.   It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision.  The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.