They were a little late, but did have the dominant browser for most of the 2000's. To say they "missed the boat" is a bit much. There was a dark period from 1999 to 2004 or so where IE was basically the only usable browser.

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chrisrickard 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

… i’m still seeing a therapist about this time period.

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josefx an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> but did have the dominant browser for most of the 2000's.

By offering it for "free" as part of the OS. Which they could only do because they never intended to pay the developers who wrote it.

In a classic Microsoft move they fucked over their competition, their partners and the entire ecosystem for well over a decade.

	▲	bombcar 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The MA hate is real and well deserved but there actually was a period of time where IE was the browser of choice for all the right reasons. People forget that part, but Microsoft has really made good products when they want to.