That sounds more like the result of a filter bubble than reality. Safari is the default browser on a lot of Macs, but those users don't comment on HN about using it. It would also be useful if you described the properties of Safari that make it "IE" to you, since it's hard to discern what that means otherwise.
Safari is very much like IE. The best part is they don't even allow you to install an alternative to iOS so you end up with people on older ipads who are unable to install an up to date rendering engine.
