1. It still feels the same way as IE4 felt on desktops running Windows 98. Even though change is inevitable, people don’t like change. The script rendering engine Microsoft uses is still the same. It’s fairly fast but not the fastest. It’s built for the web 2.0 standard but pages will still look different from what you see on other browsers. In simple words, IE7 is just IE4 + tabs + RSS + a new look. People don’t like change. People like IE.

2. Microsoft and PC manufacturers support IE. Huh? Isn’t that obvious? In the corporate world, no. When you get a new laptop or notebook computer from your company, it isn’t preloaded with Firefox. In fact, it comes with a Custom License Agreement with Custom Terms and Conditions. So installing Firefox on your new laptop may not be the best idea. The annual maintenance contract that companies sign for software and hardware support applies only for the software that came installed originally. If something goes wrong, it’s quite easy for them to send your superiors a report saying the software you installed was the reason for what went wrong with your computer. It’s dumb, but that’s how it works.

3. The home user has an internet connection and a web browser. The average home user isn’t aware of which browser he/she is using to visit and bookmark websites. It’s almost always a very mechanical process. Start -> Windows Internet Explorer -> Click on the address bar -> Visit websites. It’s funny, but people actually think Microsoft’s browser is the only browser. When I asked people at my college whether they use Firefox to browse websites, they reply saying no. Two or three students had a great discussion with each other, and were assuming Firefox was some other operating system and Internet Explorer was what they would be using on the Firefox operating system.