I have both, there's nothing wrong with that and no reason for anyone here
to refuse to say so, however you will need IE working to get your updates
which are often critically important even if you do not use IE. Of the other
available browsers I think Firefox is as good as any, of course it's partly
personal preference...
However ticked off you are by IE (And trust me, we ALL understand that)
please consider checking for spyware because problems that "Look like" IE
problems are actually caused by crap like spyware that breaks things. I am
not making excuses here by the way, spyware is a more serious issue than
viruses in many cases... and naturally IE and Windows are the biggest target
for it.
When you get time look at some of these links, if you already knew about
this well, I apologize, but many folks do not realize the seriousness of the
problem and you don't want to change browsers thinking all is well and leave
crap on your system
Charlie