Is it worth worrying about IE6-8 sans JavaScript when using HTML5 shiv?

Question

I've started using HTML5, starting from the HTML5 Boilerplate. This includes modernizr, which includes a shiv to enable HTML5 elements like <header>, <footer> etc. IE6-8 will ignore these elements without the shiv, and the shiv is JavaScript, so without JavaScript IE6-8 will look like a sack of crap.

I'm worried about a client looking at the site in IE6-8 without JavaScript. I'm wondering whether I can justify using <header> over <div id="header">, "because it's more semantic". How do you guys feel about this? Do we have to wait for IE6 to die, or is it OK to rely on JavaScript in this limited case?

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Edited to acknowledge the fact that this problem affects IE6-8, not just IE6.

Answer 1

Depends entirely on each site’s existing and desired users. If they all run IE 6 with JavaScript turned off, you’re in trouble.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of any web analytics packages that tell you how many of your users don’t have JavaScript turned on, as the analytics packages tend to rely on JavaScript themselves.

If you can figure out a way to ask your users yourself, then you’ll have some real data to work with, as opposed to guesses.