I've never had any issues with IE. As far as being hijacked, malware, etc goes, that's what firewalls and antivirus etc are for. Mind you, I didn't use it too often at all until v.7 came out, which I really like, esp. the tabs (see screenshot if you've never seen it) What I used mostly was (drumroll please) AOL. (I can hear the groans from here) I always found it to have the simplest/best email (I have yet to get more than 2 spams a week) and I adore the toolbar carousel, which allows me the quickest access to my most frequented sites. As far as speed goes, I find it a moot point, as at 16mbs download speed, the differences are barely noticeable

I imagine this post will generate some opinions...