IE was terrible at first. It wasn’t until Netscape started proposing dynamic HTML and making a play to take over the desktop experience that Microsoft threw itself behind making a better browser, bundling it with the operating system, and giving it away for free (Netscape was free for end users but required commercial licensing). The only point of IE was to kill Netscape, and it did. Netscape got the last laugh by open sourcing the browser, which is todays Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla was the Netscape mascot FWIW. Mission accomplished Microsoft pivoted to destroying other innovative companies and let IE languish until it was replaced by the malware browser Edge as a competitor to the malware adware browser Chrome. Fortunately Firefox, Safari, Brave, opera continue to exist.