There is no magic fairy dust protecting Macs - Dai Zovi, security researcher and co-author of The Mac Hacker's Handbook.
IE9 is very different. Kind of reminiscent of Google Chrome:
I do like the way it tells you which add-ons are slowing down your web browser… IE team, if you’re reading this, it would be great if you could add this functionality to IE8.
IE9 looks like a real contender, I might just have to give it a try. That said it's going to take a lot to beat the likes of Firefox(for customisability) or Chrome(for speed)...
I like the integration of the address & search box, a long anticipated step in my opinion :)