Internet Explorer 11 Compatibility

[rob_coote]

Internet Explorer 11 Developer Preview was released on June 26th. Developer Previews are made available so developers and vendors alike can ensure compatibility with their products in advance of public release.

Why is it that Ruckus has not been able to provide compatibility with IE 11 for their Zonedirector products in over 4 months since the developer preview was made available?

No Zonedirector pages will display on IE 11. Not the admin page, not the DPSK/Activation page, nothing. Compatibility mode does not work. The only response on these forums is "not supported, we need to catch up". That is an unacceptable answer.

Users of your products are upgrading to Windows 8.1 and IE 11 right now, they have been for days, and they are finding themselves unable to use your product because you have not been able to provide compatibility with a 4 month head start.

This happened with Apple OSX 10.7 Mountain Lion and more recently with 10.8 Mavericks as well.

Ruckus, your track record here is not good.

Bonjour support was promised in January, and remains vaporware.

What can we, as Ruckus customers (at least for now) expect to be done to improve these issues going forward?

[keith_redfield]

@Rob - I hear your frustration but this is kind of an industrywide problem, and one of mostly Microsoft's making.

You're assertion is that because we had access to the developer preview in June that we should have a software release that corrects the issue. That requires a release vehicle and 9.6 was already released by then - and feature frozen much earlier.

Our other choice is to introduce (potentially de-stabilizing) new features in the MR's - which is something we try to avoid at all costs.

Then finally we would have to trust that Microsoft wouldn't change something in their final release (which they've done in the past..)

So...the point is this isn't a simple matter of us being asleep at the wheel.

Can we do better? Absolutely. But it's a non-trivial issue. (do a google search of " internet explorer problem" select vendor of your choosing)

*[I don't know this for sure this applies here, but widespread reports are that IE11 breaks some sites/apps because it is actually standards compliant. The problem is, virtually every webpage/app has a section inside the Javascript which begins with (if IE...) and then has a bunch of workarounds to accomodate their earlier versions. Their now "fixed" browser seems to break due to the workarounds (ironic?). Even Google got hit... ]

[rob_coote]

Being told by support to contact my local SE because "there is nothing we can do" isn't a good answer. Neither is blaming Microsoft.

9.6 was released in May but we can't even get word as to whether or not 9.7 *might* provide fixes for longstanding issues with Windows 8 in general, let alone IE 11. You're know faced with a customer base that is going to get IE 11 pushed via MSUpdate to Windows 7 sooner than later...

Even *IF* 9.7 is supposed to address it, you can bet after the last two releases were posted and then immediately yanked (let's all recall the 9.6.0.0.264 debacle), that I won't be chomping at the bit to update.

So based on release cycle and the first MR we can expect Windows 8.1 and IE 11 to be supported when? June 2014?

[keith_redfield]

Well, that's kind of my point - there is no good answer. In order to provide a happy user experience, all this stuff has to "just work". Had they stayed consistent with IE9/10 behavior we wouldn't be here. But that's a lot like complaining about the weather and so we must react accordingly.

That means finding an appropriate release vehicle, diagnosing the issue, coding for it, adequate testing, etc.

9.7MR1 is not yet scheduled. And while you were very helpful when the 9.6.0 issue hit, I don't blame you for wanting to avoid a repeat 🙂 I will try to post back shortly with some results of testing Win8.1/IE11 with 9.7 and that should provide more clarity.

We're also looking at how we might re-architect the zero-IT system to be more resilient in the face of external changes, but that's a longer-term solution.

[max_o_driscoll]

In defence of Ruckus...

not everyone is going to be jumping on 8.1 and IE11!

Remember there is still a huge base of XP/IE8 and W7/IE9 (10 is not good in domain with gp & proxies) out there. Schools (me) and business, will not be moving to latest and greatest (debatable) anytime soon.

This is just sticking to IE compatibility concerns as chrome, firefox even opera are alternatives that work. If you are in a responsible enough admin position to be using a ZD interface then I would assume you could choose a browser as well.

IE11 compatibilty with ZD interface would be very low on my priorities compared to other features I'd like to see improved or implemented.

my 2¢ (from a backward out of touch Brit).