Someone at work said that we should not use javascript because a lot of people have javascript turned off in their browsers. This immediantly struck me as weird, even though I had heard it before.

Many years ago, I worked at a shop that had a developer that was always reluctant to try any new technology of any kind. He was also a proponent of the 'They all have javascript turned off' theory. I have always believed this was the internet's version of an old wives' tale. Are there really people that have javascript turned off in their browsers? Who are these people and why are they using my internet?

But then I ran across some stats from the W3C.

Do 10% of users really have javascript turned off? How do they use GMail? Why do I hear complains that say applications on the web aren't enough like applications on the desktop, and then users (and it seems the 10% is mostly power users) turn off the one thing that will allow us to give them these very features?

But I still have a hard time believing this. These numbers are from the beginning of the year. Now that applications like Google Maps, Gmail, flickr and NetFlix are more popular, will it cause these javascript rebels to change their tune? And if it doesn't, does that mean they never will? I'm interesting in seeing some more recent numbers, just to compare and see where this is headed.

Since I'm a geek and like to develop applications using new technology, I don't plan on supporting my personal applications on non-javascript browsers, at least not with a nice interface. I want to give feature-rich applications that can do more than a non-javascript browser will support and I think Google is doing this also with Maps. They have released a GMail version that is plain HTML, but they concentrated on providing a kick-butt, paradigm-busting interface first, and I thank them for it. That's the kind of stuff I want to do and I can't let a couple of javascript turner-offers ruin it for me.

I'm not sure why I even take this so personally. It feels like I'm a carpenter and I go to a client site to build them a deck and they take away my hammer. "I'm sorry. We don't allow hammers here." Well, then build your own freakin' deck. I'll just take my hammer elsewhere.

So, na.