IE 7 RC1

I read a blog post today that said Internet Explorer RC1 was released and is available for download.

My first reaction - and my only reaction since I read the post - is, "Big deal."

Honestly here, Microsoft comes to the party years and years after the fact, so what is there to be excited about unless you're someone who stuck to IE6 even though there were better browsers available?

I am an ASP.NET developer and I've created or helped to create dozens and dozens of sites. I love ASP.NET (particularly 2.0) and wouldn't choose any other technology for my work. 

So I'm quite curious. Microsoft doesn't charge for IE (at least they never have, who knows what they'll do with IE 7).  With that in mind, why would they spend literally years developing a browser that doesn't give me anything I haven't already had for the past couple of years? Why would they spend all that time and money? Is it solely to try to regain the market share they've lost since 2003? And if the answer is yes, what happens if they do regain that market share? Where does that get them? Why would it be a good thing?

I visit web sites all day long while doing research, work, and personal browsing. Oddly enough, and I swear this is a true statement, the only sites I've seen that look screwy or out of whack are hosted by Microsoft.com. MSN.com doesn't display like it does in IE 6. MSDN articles don't print correctly from any browser but IE 6, menus and fonts often appear so tiny they can't be read, and there are a slew of other issues.

So I ask again - if Microsoft isn't going to play nice with other browsers (via the many sites they own and operate), why would I support their new browser? What's the point? I'm not asking to be sarcastic, I'm asking because I obviously must be overlooking something here (which wouldn't be the first time). Microsoft didn't get to where it is today by making mistakes, so can someone please enlighten me here?