I'm a little late on this discussion, but I have to second your thoughts. I had to dump IE at home when even my ad killer software and the pop-up blocker on the google bar failed to work much of the time.
It got to the point I just couldn't get any work done, and because I'm doing doctoral work in information science and the Internet is my best buddy, I need to be able to get in and get out w/o killing pop-ups all the time or having spyware slow down my machine.
I'm going to have to add this thread to my, 'FReepers are wonderful people, but some of them are completely crazy' file.
you can use opera (lighter and faster). wouldnt be so funny if that were a nazi swastika now would it.