There's nothing wrong with Internet Explorer when compared to browsers of similar age. Have you seen the reviews for IE9? They're very positive. The performance benchmarks? Top of the line, in many instances. IE7 and 8 weren't quite as highly regarded (if I remember correctly), but were still considered very solid contenders, and good browsers for their time. Heck, even IE6 (the browser that gets most of the hate) was a good browser back in 2001.

The problem is that people are still using IE6 TEN YEARS later, which means that developers have had to maintain support for it. This has been troublesome because it doesn't support proper web standards, which is a definite annoyance. However, in its day, IE6 had around 95% of the browser market. It WAS the standard. There was no need for MS to follow the guidelines of third party standards bodies. This design decision sucks nowadays, but it was perfectly valid back then.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that bad browsers aren't bad because they're IE, they're bad because they're out of date. Microsoft just happens to be the only company with browsers old enough to be truly awful, though, and so they've taken most of the heat. People have developed a general dislike for all things IE, and it isn't the "cool" thing to use anymore. This despite the fact that you could easily argue that IE9 is the best browser around (although with the fast development cycles of MS' competitors, that won't be the case for long).

Conclusion: If you meant to say IE6 (I might even give you 7), then fair enough. We can't expect everyone to stay fully modern, but it's been more than long enough at this point, and IE6 needs to die its final death. If you really do think all IE products are vastly inferior, though, you need to read some reviews, stop being a fanboy, and realize that software prejudice is stupid. There's a lot of posturing that goes on in the low levels of the nerd ranks ("I wouldn't touch Windows with a ten foot pole; I don't use anything I didn't compile myself!" ), but it's all a bunch of crap. Don't try to be cool, just use what works, no matter who makes it.