Internet Explorer is a quality product. Don't get me wrong. It's fast and most websites are designed for it... So you'll rarely have problems viewing web sites. But... as we PC users have discovered over the last 10 years or so, having the popular product also makes you the prime candidate for viruses and malicious software.
There's a new kid on the block... well... it's not so new anymore, and you've probably even heard me extoll it before. Mozilla Firefox is your friend. It has some great new features like tabbed browsing that will become addictive. It has garnered tremendous support from the developer community and has plugins that will do everything from block ads (that's important given the amount of money the spam/scam companies will pay to have their infections spread by web sites) to count the number of days since you quit smoking.
If you've tried Firefox, you're probably already a believer. It's faster running and nearly immune to pop-up advertising straight out of the box. Once you load the "Adblock" extension and the corresponding ad filters, you'll be amazed at how much less distraction you'll see on your favorite web sites.
I recently embarassed myself by getting a barrage of spyware loaded on my laptop. In a rare lapse of judgment (we IT people are supposed to be perfect, you know!), I visited mySpace with Internet Explorer. Five minutes later, I was cursing and cleaning my laptop. Fortunately the culprits were minor players and easily removed. Color me back on a strict policy of only using Internet Explorer to visit sites that don't work with Firefox (and that I know are "safe").
Ready to try Firefox? You can download it here.
