Backwards compatibility is one of Microsoft's strengths but with IE it became a weakness for them.
I know that Microsoft in general puts a lot of thought and resources into backwards compatibility.
But the thing is, with IE, I never felt it.
Back in the day, whenever a new version of IE came out, so much stuff would break, and the whole company would scramble to get everything fixed and compatible again - and getting things to work on multiple versions of IE simultaneously (and flawlessly) was such a pain.
We never had any similar problems with Firefox or Chrome... those updates never hurt as much. IE was the only browser, where new versions would cause all-hands-on-deck meetings...
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I know that Microsoft in general puts a lot of thought and resources into backwards compatibility.
But the thing is, with IE, I never felt it.
Back in the day, whenever a new version of IE came out, so much stuff would break, and the whole company would scramble to get everything fixed and compatible again - and getting things to work on multiple versions of IE simultaneously (and flawlessly) was such a pain.
We never had any similar problems with Firefox or Chrome... those updates never hurt as much. IE was the only browser, where new versions would cause all-hands-on-deck meetings...