There are really only 3 Choices,,,Opera-Mozilla/FireBird-IE.Most are using MS Engine,,except of course Mozilla and Opera.They are all fast with the right configuration.You can't lose.They are all very decent browsers.But when you stack up all the features and skins and support,,Opera is clearly the winner.Although I have no Idea how it will run on anything but XP with a ton of RAM.So I think you are right jtb to be cautious.Be sure to take a look at the most elegant skin collection for Opera.

I have noticed several comments on this thread about pop up blockers. Why not try the new Google Tool Bar which has just been released. Its great and blocks all those pop ups.

Sirs:

I use Opera--the free version--very fast.
Also I use "noopads--(no opera ads)which
blocks out the Ads on Opera.
Very impressed with Opera.Have had a lot of
problems with I.E.6.
Best regards--Jazzbro22UK.

Way back when this site was first getting started I was testing uploads with both Opera [my then normal browser] and IE6....helping sort upload time-outs...and ended up sticking with IE out of laziness more than anything else....Opera was really a better proggy...

Well in my opinion, which aint worth much,lol,Opera has them all beat. by a long shot.Anyone who wold still use the archaic IE in this day and time really likes slow surfing I would think. Opera is so customizable,in every way, down to the ini and exe files, so if there is any part of it you dont like, you can just edit it out. Try that with IE and see what happens,lol. And as for the ad, it realy isnt that big of an issue, I just paid for the browser.It's worth every penny.

I used IE6 because I had no clue that thee were other browsers out there. Then I got turned on to Firebird(Mozilla) and have fallen completely fot it! It doesn't drag my resources down, loads much faster, and those tabs,woo hoo!!!! Sometimes I Have to use IE, but I get out asap.

I use Mozilla Firebird mostly becuase it's very fast and has sooo many more features than IE and less security holes, but you have to use IE on some sites because Big Brother Microsoft makes a lot of websites only work with IE.

I noticed that sites that have div styles seem to work fine in other browsers but not in IE.

Is anybody having that problem?

Deviant Art is one site.

I use DIV styles all the time with no problem in IE. Hmmm.

By the way, been giving a fair chance to Opera in the last few days, but I'm sorry to say that it's much slower than IE is. And believe me, I'm not trying to defend MS, I'm far from a fan.  A lot of pages even time out in Opera (here especially) while they just appear in a Flash with IE. What all that talk about Opera being so fast?
A shame though, cause I like its features. Just I just can stand the lag. Sorry.

I recently tried Firebird and I've also used and bought Opera to support the cause, but frankly I haven't found either to appear faster than IE. Which surprised me about Firebird since I thought it would be according to reports. Maybe there's a subjective element at work but it still seems to me that IE is faster on my PC. I like a number of browsers and really like MyIE2 which is an IE shell, but I still wind up going back to IE. Go figure.

paxx,Have you made any adjustments in the preferences panel of Opera ? I am not having that trouble at all.DevArt of course,I haven't found a browser yet willing to deal with whatever they have done to that place.Anyhow,there are cookie settings and such that are better left at default,IMO.I tried messin' with em' once and wound up with the same thing you got goin' on.Mozilla/Firebird? Skinz Blah,,Opera ? Fantastic Skins,Features,Speed,Hot list,Wand,tons of other stuff.Absolutely well worth SUPPORTING and buying.