Re: Exterminate! Exterminate!
> Nobody was force to use IE.
Yes they were - for a while it was only only browser that worked for a good portion of the web, as websites prioritised supporting IE over web standards.
> The complaint was from companies who wanted to sell copies of their own browsers.
Somewhat; the other big issue with the web's dependence on IE was that is in turn created a dependence on Windows, as nothing else could run IE. So effectively the web was in danger of becoming locked to a single vertically-integrated platform stack. Fortunately the world has managed to move on, however Microsoft still pull the same tricks with vertical integration - for example two decades later many of their web services still only work properly in a single browser.
The big difference between not and then is that they've just finally figured out how to incorporate open source into their business model.