There tends to be a very fine line between "laziness" and "increased productivity". Having to spend umpteen hours supporting legacy browsers can be seen on both sides of that fence.

From an operational perspective if they feel that this won't have too extreme an impact on their customers I think it makes a ton of sense from a productivity standpoint.

Huh.

So do you think it's better for most users if they can fix bugs faster, respond to support requests faster, build new products, add new features (<gasp>) etc? I think it is. And I think blowing off IE6 will allow them to server other folks better.

Time is always allocated somewhere-- the time they save by giving up IE6 support can go to more constructive/forward thinking pursuits.

Only 37s has access to their web stats-- if ie6 is vanishingly small within their paying userbase, it's a smart move.

At some point forcing users to upgrade is to their benefit. Giving them support makes them think there is nothing wrong with using IE6 when there are better alternatives available.

No one complains about IE5.5 not being supported by most sites anymore, but people still use it.