[superstructor]

I've measured on large sites (millions of unique users) IE6 is less than 4% of traffic. So I don't understand why people still hold it up as a problem. No one cares about it anymore, even serious eCommerce sites have given up on that 4%.

IE9 being stable means a large number of users will upgrade. This allows creating web applications with far more capabilities than was possible previously with a large group receiving the best experience. IE7/8 can survive the same content with progressive enhancement, feature detects, shims and so forth.

The reality is IE9 greatly improves the browser landscape. Its a step forward. Sure it might not be as good as Chrome/Safari/Firefox/Opera by a web developers or power users standards and it may not be updated as often. But the average windows user does not care about your opinion. None of the available browsers are "modern" either. All have serious bugs and braindead behavior in some way or another.