It's not even a matter of sticking it to anyone. At this point Firefox 3.0 is a superior product to IE, and for Microsoft to catch up they're going to have to embrace the open source community. Firefox 2.0 had memory issues, but Firefox 3.0 has fixed those leaks and is noticeably faster (and definitely faster than any version of IE). My favorite feature is "find as you type" so if I see a hyperlink on the page I can just start typing it, it jumps to it, I hit enter, and never have to do the mouse hunt-and-peck. Oh yea, and it saves your tabs when you exit and restores you back to the exact same page. Great when you have a bit search going on and Windows wants to reboot. Oh yea, one more 3.0 feature, it keeps track of where you've been so if you accidentally (or purposefully) close a tab you can restore it, like an undo.
But let's throw that all out. The real reason Firefox is better is due to the add-ons and themes. Microsoft has noticed this gaping hole and has been trying to get people to do the same for IE but there's no way for a company to compete with a worldwide community of plug-in creators. Here are some of the must-haves:
Adblock Plus - Uses a database of ad sites, and blocks ad images on all pages. Makes browsing nice and fast again. You think Microsoft will ever put out something to block its advertisers?
ButMeNot - Right click to automatically in to those free web sites compulsory with compulsory registration, without you having to register.
SlimSearch - Highlight an address, right click, select google maps, and voila. Highlight words, right click and select from a menu of other sites (eBay, google, dictionary, images, etc).
