I’m somewhat of a tech geek… I love technology and computers. I have tried a majority of the browsers out there, and I was impressed with FireFox and Opera. But still, I use IE, since that is what I"m used to. In fact, I just turned my roommate onto FireFox, and she absolutely loves it! It’s a great proggie! = )
I guess I am “lucky”, as in in 10 years, I have never gotten spyware or a virus. I’m not trying to be the one to buck the trend of this thread, but it’s not the browser, necessarily, it’s the surfing habits. Granted, my home network setup is a bit more robust than the average home user… Cisco hardware firewall, etc… and I have also adjusted my IE settings to be a bit more secure. I do run AdAware (and SpyBot, etc), but all it ever finds is cookies, which may be annoying is not spyware. The term “spyware” has been bastardized to include cookies, malware, stuff you accepted to download (but didn’t really want to since you weren’t paying attention when you clicked “yes”, etc).
I think it still comes down to good surfing behaviour. I am not here to preach or try to convert anyone back to IE… use what you like best! I just wanted to give the tale of one lad that hasn’t had these problems with IE. YMMV.
I know my situation will not suit a majority of the people out there, but thanks for listening. = )