It is indeed absolutely mind-boggling when you consider that MS later did next to nothing on the browser for 5 years. Hell, Apple forked KHTML in 2001, a few m

It is indeed absolutely mind-boggling when you consider that MS later did next to nothing on the browser for 5 years. Hell, Apple forked KHTML in 2001, a few months before the release of IE6, and had 5 whole years to develop Safari (and WebKit) with essentially no significant (Sorry Opera) commercial competition. In fact, between 2001 and late 2004 (FF 1.0) no Netscape progeny had significant share, so Microsoft had no real competition of any sort. If MS had kept their foot on the gas we may never have seen an opportunity for Chrome to dominate.