I'm gonna say... you either dealt with idiots, or are making it up quite honestly... if "most people" who came to you had those problems.
Regardless, it's a fairly simple thing. When everyone uses the same browser it's easier for people to talk to each other, and solve problems... you know. So they don't have to go to tech people.
With multiple browsers... you can't go to as many people for help, and you can't even get help online as easily because you have to sort through all kinds of different solutions for different browsers.
Real simple concept.
Firefox, which you mention... is actually the perfect counterexample to your entire argument.
Which is... if people make a better browser... people will use the better browser. Firefox rose rapidly because it offered a lot IE didn't.
I'm supposed to be sorry because a bunch of browsers that didn't offer more the IE didn't make it?
I should be hoping for people to use 50 versions of similar browsers that all work differently?
It's better if people have to deliver more broad content that has to factor in dozens of different browsers that all do the same thing then it is to let people worry about a handful of websites doing things a handful of ways?
If there were better browsers then IE. PEOPLE WOULD USE THEM. That's the thing though, you've got to offer people features THEY WANT.
Your comparisons remind me of the PS3 vs Wii stuff where people complain the Wii isn't powerful enough... ignoring the fact that power isn't what the regular consumer wants.
In all honesty, i'd be surprised if this even changed web browsing all that much. I mean a large number of people kept using Netscape over IE even after AOL shut down Netscape and told people to stop using it.
Why? Even though every other browser was better then it at that point? People just wanted to use it, because it fit what they wanted to.
Hell, i kept using it for a while afterwords.
As already stated there is plenty to push Microsoft... Firefox.
