Everyone says that 90% of the audience uses IE..

BUT it depends on the audience you aim for. Obviously, on a site like THIS, the most popular browser if Firefox. So if you design for IE and it looks crap in Firefox, then a lot of people are gonna say this site would look crap, as a lot of your audience is gonna be using FireFox.

As for my site (CYS) 50% of visitors use Internet Explorer and 49% use Firefox. 1% use a load of other crap..

The VAST majority of IE users are people who come onto the internet for small amounts of time, and/or gamers, who have no interest in graphics or web design.

Oh, anoter downfall of IE is the way it portrays PNG images. No transparency? Pffft.