Well, my Internet Explorer week-long test was completed Monday evening, and here are my thoughts summed up in Pros and Cons:
Pros: Browser is fast to start up after you boot the PC; under 10 seconds with Audrey, and around 10 seconds sharp with Greta. GPU acceleration is noticeable, especially with HTML5 videos, which play flawlessly. IE has some security features enabled by default, like only displaying secure content on a mixed-content page and preventing pages from loading certain CSS scripts.
Cons: Browser can get a bit unstable after a long browsing session, resulting in occasional tab crashes and reloads. Browser is somewhat uncustomizeable with limited selection of add-ons. AdBlock Plus is available for IE, but it's not perfect and ads still get blocked on whitelisted sites. No way to change the look of the browser with skins like Firefox or Seamonkey.
Conclusion: IE is definitely not the buggy, security-hole filled browser that people like to think it is. MS has made great strides in improving the browser's speed and security, but the issues outlined above prevent it from being worthwhile to use.
Now, I'm going to try the Opera browser. I have knocked it in past months from ditching their own program and relying on the open source Chromium browser for their builds, but I haven't used it that much since then either. I need to form a more solid opinion on it. So, starting now, Opera is my main web browser until next Wednesday.
I love foxes, especially the one in my avatar.