I've been playing with Mozilla Firefox, which is a new and free browser from some of the folks who once brought you the old Netscape browser. So far, it seems faster and easier to use than Microsoft Internet Explorer, though like all competitors, it lacks the universal interchange of I.E. If you're running Windows, you pretty much have to have Microsoft's browser on your computer and a lot of programs (Microsoft and otherwise) interface with it…but for just surfing about and reading websites, Firefox seems to have it beat…and unlike I.E., it does a fine job of blocking unwanted pop-ups.
The makers of Firefox also have a free e-mail program called Thunderbird with which I'm just beginning to tinker. I'll report back once I have an opinion of it.