Answers:
I prefer firefox for these reasons: 1. Tabbed browsing. Although you can download some msn addon to iexplorer to do this, the firefox tabbed browsing is built in. This means you have one window with multiple tabs. To create a new empty tab just hit ctrl-T. 2. It is less likely to be targeted by adware, and you can control popups better. 3. I hate third party toolbars (yahoo,msn,google all have them, but I don't want them). Mostly those toolbars are for iexplorer, not for firefox.
For users : NO ! (Well... depending on how good you are with computers)
For developpers : Yes !
(that's why a l;ot of developpers are using Firefox ;-O )
Try firefox by downloading it here (right column, down) : http://smiliesskinsandtemplates.blogspot.com/
the other good alternative to IE is opera
http://www.opera.com
Albeit I am not an IT expert, I use computers on daily basis for the past 15 years, and have been on the Net since 1995. Although I used Internet Explorer for 6-7 years (ohh, where Netscape's days have gone;), I didn't have any problems of translating all online work toward Firefox. Regardless of the Firefox hype & OO trend, I like it mostly because it's most advantages compared with IE are (1) usage simplicity and that little but crucial option that IE had been missing for so long >> (2) tabs (farewell Alt+Tab;).
It really is but so is Netscape 7.2 (I'd avoid 8.0),
Mozilla 1.7 and Opera. In fact, I'd say that Firefox and Opera are just about even.
Firefox has fewer hackers trying to breach security using it's code. IE is always the first browser to be targeted.
As for function, down load a copy and try it. This has more to do with what a user does with a browser than anything else. For some, Firefox is a pain in the patoot. Others find it is easier to use.
It does have some nice features.
As a opensource browser Firefox is less under hacking danger, hackers instead of hacking firefox tries to make it better. As IExplore is *owned* by microsoft u can forget to tweak it leagely...
I have used Opera for almost two years. I like it better then Firefox and IE. More secure and easier to use.