From how I remember it, we started with Netscape, IE outcompeted that by adding new features until they had enough share to strangle the competition. By that time IE became mandatory because of their extensions. Windows systems couldn't get updates without opening IE.

Eventually it (IE) fossilized and Firefox became the better browser with more features (remember that debugging extension?) but was still pretty slow.

Then came chrome. Way way faster, sleek and modern UI, removing the search and tool-bars. Hiding bookmarks by default and putting everything into the Omni bar. Really, that was what everyone I know of cared about: responsiveness/speed and that sleek UI.

Finally Firefox improved its resource usage/speed and adjusted it's UI, taking inspiration from chrome... But by that time, it's popularity had already dropped massively.

Firebug was a godsend.

ie won because it wasn't an utter piece of shit. Netscape 3 crashed if you looked at it crosseyed, and ie3 was significantly more stable and performant. I worked at one of the first companies to ship a serious app targeting a browser and, at one point, 1/3 of our front-end code was fingerprinting various netscape versions and working around their browser bugs. The world rushed to ie3/4 because it wasn't garbage.

I'm not saying Microsoft didn't abuse their monopoly position or compete in underhanded and illegal ways, but they originally won purely on quality. People shipping serious web apps begged their users to get off netscape.

you're misremembering history. chrome was always just faster and had newer features that people liked.