Marginal browser support by the BBC (and why the BBC they can't use jQuery)

Question

The BBC just released their JavaScript library, Glow. They rolled their own because the major libraries don't adequately support older browsers.

I'm wondering if I should take the time to learn the library. Do other large institutions have similar laws and rules regulating them that prevent them from using the mainstream libraries such as jQuery?

Answer 1

The BBC's primary duty is not to make money, instead, it is to serve the license-payer. In order to reach the widest possible audience, they have to support those older browsers. There's a large number of people in this world who couldn't be bothered—or don't even know how—to upgrade their web browsers from IE 5.old or whatever they're using now. The BBC can't just say "well too bad for you" to these people, even though private broadcasters can.

(Disclaimer: I'm from the US so this is mostly conjecture based on what I've learned about the BBC from other sources, e.g. Wikipedia. Please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong, or downvote me mercilessly. Either works.)

Answer 2

Browser stats suggest it would be a waste of time. From my own relatively high-traffic public-facing website, older browsers (generation 1 firefox, netscape 5 or less, MSIE 5 or less) last month registered 40,000 hits out of 8.3 million, or 0.5%.

It also seems to me that any organization restricting you to some ancient browser might be the same ones that restrict you from browsing the BBC. None of the companies I deal with at work have restrictions for older browsers either, and we have a couple hundred clients ranging from small to fortune 500.

Thank goodness too - I can't imagine trying to make our application work for older browsers.