It is a sad state of affairs when one company can take over an open standard that is supposed to work with *any* compatible browser. The web was designed to be accessible through any browser, not just the one from a particular company. Embrace, extend, and destroy in action once again.
Of course, the spineless web creators who "optimize" for the one browser are not blameless in this mess.
If you don't want to use IE, try Opera.