This is what Microsoft does better with product releases: they don't release new versions of their software every six months. That gives people plenty of time to get cozy with the software, love it, and then get bored and upgrade to the next version in three years....unless if you're weird.
I couldn't disagree more with this. Microsoft has been playing catch up for years and years and years. They have always been extremely late to the part in the web browser front. The primary reason I moved away from IE (years ago) was the fact that it didn't have a built in popup blocker, nor did it support tabbed browsing. So, I find other browsers that were far more modern in their feature set. I've never really looked back.
It seems that over the years, the story is always the same. IE6 is going to be standards compliant and far more secure. Wait until IE7 gets here, its going to be the most secure browser ever. Well, IE7 isn't great, but boy IE8 really steps up the security and will be standards compliant. So, have you seen IE9, this one is really great. I honestly have never really noticed anything compelling with any of these releases and always go back to the other browsers.
Up until about 3 months ago, Firefox was pretty much all I would use. But I got disappointed in all of the releases and the add-ons breaking with each new release, so I started playing with Chrome. I found that the plug-ins that I really wanted (like Adblock Plus) were available in Chrome. What sold me on Chrome was the sync feature allowing me to keep my work pc's and home PC's synced as far as bookmarks, my bookmark bar, and my history. (I know Firefox has a sync, but compared to the Google Chrome version, it was just slow and unpredictable).
And from a security standpoint, perhaps unfounded, but I feel better not having Active-X controls installing on my machine.