The problem isn’t Internet Explorer anymore. Plenty of people want an alternative browser. No, the problem is Firefox now. When Netscape signed their sharing agreement with Mozilla, they basically signed their own doom. They never should have allowed competing versions of the same codebase. Had they done something like Sun did with Java, getting open source help, but retaining rights to the code, then maybe Navigator could have survived.
It could have. But should it?
Browsers are a dime a dozen. Actually, that's a gross exaggeration. They're nothing a dozen. And as real standards take hold, everyone and his brother can write one. I use Safari, Firefox and Opera on Mac, IE, Opera and Firefox on Windows.
Why so many browsers? When I build a Web site, I want to see it in the ways 99% of visitors will see it. I try it from my cell phone, and I used to test them in a WebTV browser window. If I had a screen-reader for the blind, I'd try that too. For me, making sites accessible is a matter of principle.
There is no business case for maintaining a Web browser that can't compete. Navigator is to computing what Nash and Hudson were to automobiles. Good in their time, but obsolete now. The real world isn't a museum. It's time to remember them fondly, tip the cap, and move on.