Browser Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace

This will be the first in a six-part series discussing web browsers.

At the moment, there are probably more web browsers available than at any other time. And you can get into some serious arguments discussing which is better.

But that's just arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (842, of course). All the web browsers available do a fine job of surfing the web. I've yet to see anything on a technical level that makes any one stand out. It all boils down to features, and which features are important to you.

Most people will stick with the defaults (Internet Explorer 7 for XP/Vista and Safari for the Mac). That is usually fine. But there are three other possibilities (three? read on) that you may find fit your needs and web browsing habits more closely. I'll try to go over the main advantages and disadvantages of each, going over the browsers roughly in my own personal order of preference.