Here I was, happily working on the re-design for my school’s English-language web site. I was using PNG image files pretty liberally for the first time, allowing me to create beautiful transparencies in 24-bit color. I was very happy with result; it looked great.

Now I’ll have to trash all those graphics. Why? Because half the world still uses the crappiest browser around, Internet Explorer 6 (for no better reason that Microsoft forced it and no other browser on everyone’s desktops, and they just use it because it’s there), and IE6 cannot handle PNG transparencies. So if I want masked images with transparencies, I’ll have to use 8-bit GIFs which will be hard as hell to get to work right–I’ll probably have to abandon even those, and use JPGs, which means there will be small disconnects with the background images and things will look funky.

In short, Microsoft just ruined a lot of hard work I’ve done and made it a lot harder to do my web site the way I want to, the way I can, the way it should be done–because MS foisted a giant turd on the world and it’s stuck.

Thank you, Bill Gates.