MSIE is showing a different version of my site than Firefox

Its easy to say when you aren't the IT manager who has to go to your boss and ask for several million dollars to upgrade the whole company. I'm not saying I like this situation at all but I also understand why so many fortune 500 companies are in this boat.

On the upside now that Google Chrome Frame is out of beta, we might be able to convince people to go that route.

Well, if you know, IE9 beta, has all that features you say, that google chrome frame enables, just give it a try, it's not perfect though is beta. But it's really nice. It isn't available for XP, just for Vista and W7.

Google Chrome Frame is intended for enterprise systems using older versions of IE (Most all fortune 500 companies) who won't be upgrading to an OS that will support IE9 anytime soon.

Yes you could easily upgrade most hardware made in the last two years, but most companies are running machines upwards of 10 years old. You have to replace the hardware to run win7 on those. How much do you think it would cost to upgrade somewhere in the range of 20,000 6 to 8 year old computers to be able to run IE9?

Even if you get a dirt cheap computer with win7 its going to cost in the range of $400 + upgraded software + monitor so lets say a new computer for 20,000 employees will cost $700 each 20k * 700 = $14,000,000 (not pocket change for any company). Yes the upgrades will happen over time but we'll still have to support IE6/7 for a long time.

The problem isn't the average user. I have personally used IE9 beta and I admit its decent but you have to develop sites for your audience and as long as that audience is people who work at a large company old IE still figures into the mix.