I think because it is not as secure as FF or Opera, not as quick as them and, maybe just as important, an inseparable part of another MS product which everyone love to hate - Windows.... But I could be wrong...
I think internet explorer is far more stable and faster than opera or FF. Thing is, IE is built into windows. So if you penetrate IE your into windows.... veryroughly speaking. FF and Opera are just program that run in windows. Read all you like about IE. You can only conclude not to bother with it. Opera is good but im not into all the integrated email and torrents etc. Firefox isnt quite as quick but its an internet browser with endless plugin.... you can make it do what you want it to do. Though Operas quickdial is nice.
IE 6 lets in a lot of crap...And we would never have seen the likes of IE 7 if it were not for Firefox.
IE 7 is quite stable, if you think about it. It lacks a few features that I wouldn't mind having, but I seem to think in XP and Vista it runs quite a bit more smoothly, and faster. And doesn't have weird lag-stops in the middle of loading pictures and the likes. (that I've noticed)
I still use IE and I dont complain about it many website still do not support firefox or opera and even if it does you cant see half of the page or some buttons are missing on the pages. IE is not that bad as you guys complains it is bad for new kids who just heard ff is better i think.
to be honest I dont think its how well ie works which people go on about. its the security issues. Though you could argue thats more windows than ie. I write this, like 99% of my other posts on this site in IE!
I use firefox just because I prefer it over IE 7 which can be a tad slow at times. I started using firefox 1.5 back when IE 6 was the default browser on Windows. I've been using it ever since. The simplicity and tabbed browsing was the reason I went to it in the first place. Now Firefox seems to be getting more cluttered and IE is a little simpler.
personally i use Linux (Debian) more often than not, however, i got a PC for my birthday & i've been playing with Vista (not ie) i use FF on it before FF exist, i used Nutscrape (bassically FF & Netscape are the same animal, they just called it FF when they open sourced it)[ot]at least i think so[/ot]
I agree with Zeus, IE down fall is all its security updates,It seems like Microsoft is always patching IE for something,Now this is not the kind of browser I want to use..I use Firefox or Kmeleon...
I used IE6 forever, at least until may of 2008. Tried IE7 and FF. Loved firefox. FF was so much faster than IE7 and it had a better interface. The endless plugins and the bookmark tab sealed the deal for me.
I've become addicted to, or even dependent on, FF's extensions and themes. I don't think I can truly switch to any other browser now... period. Unless they port the same functionality that I depend on through extensions. I use Opera for quick email checking or something because of speed dial. But anyway, I don't think I can live w/o Foxmarks extension. I switch between my laptop in dorm and PC at home and exporting/importing bookmarks back and forth to keep them the same is such an annoying hassle... I used to do it. Now Foxmarks is heaven by comparison. That's #1 necessity but also Taboo, ScrapBook, InFormEnter, and Flash Killer are some other really important ones. The list goes on.
I'm a Firefox man my self, always hated ie anyways a few weeks ago ie was all over the papers saying that it was unsecured and left some vulnerable, so i guess loads of people lost confidence in it.
I haven't actively used IE for years (unless you count Windows Updates) in favor of Firefox and Opera (although I've dumped Opera because of program instability).