Party's over!
I guess if you want a free alternative browser now, you could
get Firefox - or annoy friends and visitors by begging them to click an affiliate link to get you a free licence for Opera
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Interesting results - and while, as they say, the "default browser" of Internet Explorer is under-represented, the other results are interesting.
The fade away of IE5 is clear.
With the identification of Firefox seperately from Mozilla (suite), it takes a clear second place here - the rest are also-rans - and on that basis, it's more important not to break compatibility with older versions of IE, than to support new browsers.
It also suggests that people need a lot of convincing to PAY for a browser, when they get one with the operating system and can have an alternative one free (and while you can use Opera in "sponsored mode", and maybe relatively harmless compared to most ad/spyware, it's not something I'd choose).
I know I shouldn't turn round and bite the hand that's been giving out free licences for their browser, but I'm amazed that Opera survives against the current maturity level of Firefox - mind you, the Mozilla project wasn't originally intended to lead to a "final" public release browser, but to serve as the core for the new
Netscape browser and others...
http://www.beonex.com/ - Beonex Communicator - at one time, a "polished" version of Mozilla, but it's been in limbo for some time as the focus moved away from the suite that it's based on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMonkey - for those who prefer the Mozilla Suite, it is to be hoped that SeaMonkey (taking over the development name that was used for the suite) will carry it forward.