As I pretty much stated before, I could care less what you use, as long as it works for you. However, trying to knock IE9 just for the sake of it, is rather ridiculous. I've now installed it on 6 personal machines and 2 business machines and I've yet to have a problem with installing or running it after install. I know a lot of IE haters like to tell their horror stories, but I find many of those stories not to match my experience. Heck, I find that many anti-(insert product name) types like to spread a lot of nonsense. For some odd reason they seem to feel that if they can convince others to take up their cause, their choices will somehow seem superior or justified. I'm smart enough not to listen to haters, especially when my own experiences are far from equivalent to what they claim. Sure, I've had problems with IE, just as I have with FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera and just about every other piece of software that I've ever used. Those problems have in no way been better or worse necessarily, just different and even sometimes the same. People can pretend as they like, but I don't find it a thrill to hate a product just because. And, like I mentioned before: None of the others would have done any better with their browsers if they had the share that MSFT once enjoyed. It's easy to talk about how you innovate and grow when you're at the bottom, but in the real world, when you're the only game in town (for the most part) you concentrate your efforts elsewhere and on products that you'd like to gain some share in.
I have to address some of these statements that are just pure fallacy too. This one about the majority of people who purchase a license for Windows 7 downgrading to XP, Ridiculous! Sure, you'll get some of that in the corporate world, but the majority of the corporate world already holds licenses for XP, so why would they buy a licenses for Windows 7 in masse and than downgrade? They wouldn't. Plain and simple. Many corporations will upgrade to newer OS's after a time as hardware is upgraded and it will be a much slower process than the consumer market. We all know that many business's have software that is very outdated and regardless of whether or not they wanted to move to the new OS, it's a lot of time and effort and money to do so. This isn't something new with the move from Windows-Past to Win7, it has always been that way in the corporate world. It was the same when XP released and it will be the same with the next iteration of Windows. So really, that's not even news. At some point though, the benefits start to outweigh the hassle of sticking with an outdated and no longer supported OS and the corporate world must put the time, effort and cost into upgrading, but the cycle never changes. The only thing that changes as people talking about the corporate world with outdated software. Some day, Windows 7 or Windows 8 or Windows-future will be the one they're trying to hold onto, so lets not kid ourselves and pretend like this is something new or ususual.
Xp is dying, you can choose to believe it or not, but that's the truth, It's outdated, less secure and not nearly as good as Win7. It was a fine OS in it's day, but those days are gone. MSFT will certainly lose some browser share in the interim of XP dying and the new iterations of Windows, but if they develop newer versions of IE that are appealing and can do an equal job or better than their competitors, the long term outlook should be a fine one. IE9 is a good start, but they must continue on that path and improve upon it. They must release more frequently, but not to the degree that Google and FF will. In the corporate world, their's such a thing as developing at way to fast a pace and since MSFT has such a large chunk of that world, they have to balance that with also keeping consumers happy. That's not an easy balance and despite some people liking to believe that Google, Mozilla, Apple, etc are somehow more innovative and quicker to update, they don't currently have that constraint place upon them the way Microsoft does. Microsoft seems to be moving toward a patch that can balance those 2 different worlds, but they're certainly not there yet and may never be. Only time will tell, but the signs that MSFT is trying to become a more consumer friendly company, while still juggling their corporate stake, are at least encouraging ones for consumers. A lot of people out there find that using Microsoft products is a necessity, not neccesarily a choice. So, if they can make that experiece better at home and yet keep the corporate world happy too, that'll benefit their business and consumers.
Most people don't want to see this, but it's the truth either way, Despite the rampant belief by some that MSFT is somehow evil or uncaring, blah, blah, blah..... This also is nothing new. Apple will be no different if they get that kind of foothold, neither will Google or any other company out there. It's easy to say the things people want to hear when your trying to knock the bully off the hill, but when you become the bully? You take on the characteristics of the bully or you find that your time on the hill is short lived. That's the nature of the beast. When you have the power, you'll wield it and try to keep it, but eventually, some little scrawny kid will grow up and decide he's ready to take king of the mountain. So, feel free to turn whichever company you like into the new MSFT, but don't be surprised when down the road you find yourself being anti-new_bully. There a lot less pressure to take risks when the only way you can go is up, but when you can fall, and fall far and hard, well, it's not quite easy to take those same risks. The funny thing is that we all play a part in creating the next bully on the hill and then we complain and root for the next one to knock him off the top. So, bolster up the next bully, but don't whine and cry when he's the one kicking your a**.