Thanks Adept and Simon. I think I'll stay with Opera for now!
Why should i make the change
I use Opera for several reasons:
First, I am one of those nutters who formats my Hard Drives and reinstalls everything about every six months. When I used Internet Explorer, I had to reinstall cookie managers, popup managers, Google Toolbars etc. Then I discovered that the 3MB Opera download had all these features built-in, hence less hassle.
Secondly, Opera can be customised exactly as you want it by simply editing several .ini files in Notepad, and then saving your masterpieces to floppy disk ready for the next install. For example, the default Google search engine in the Opera search toolbar is the USA version, but I have edited search.ini so that it uses the UK version of Google. I have done the same with Ebay, and deleted those I never use such as AllTheWeb etc. Therefore, Opera is MY browser and not something that Bill Gates thinks I should have.
Finally, pages definitely load faster in Opera and the mouse gestures etc. that Adept mentioned make browsing much simpler, once you have learned them.
All in all, I feel in control using Opera, whereas Internet Explorer tends to call the shots - if you get my drift.