Should I accept IE 5.0 (!) as a browser requirement for a project? [closed]

Question

Unbelievable as it sounds, I received a request for proposal for a project which has the Internet Explorer 5.0 and Firefox 2.0 as minimum browser requirements!

We tried to explain to the client all the issues regarding such requirements, but since it's a government project and public tender, we can't influence them. The requirements stay.

They also insist that the solution is "modern, web 2.0 enabled (?!), accessible, ...". I can't say much else, but it's basically a public web portal with community features and a CMS background.

The project is otherwise interesting and could be quite profitable, but this requirement seems as a never ending source of frustration and problems.

Answer 1

You should tell them that you can keep the IE5 and FF2 compatibility, but those browsers will have a gracefully degraded experience. Up-to-date browsers will have the full "web 2.0" experience.

This will take more time and effort to ensure compatibility, but you would probably want to have it graceful degrade in the face of no JavaScript or RIA support anyway. Perhaps these can overlap, which would make it a little easier to accomplish.

Answer 2

Try to point them to this page:

The product Lifecycle for IE5 is already over.

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps/#Internet_Explorer

The product support from MS for these Versions of the browser has ended several years ago already. Tell them that you are unable to get any vendor support for this version anymore