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For some folks, of course, which browser they use is a big philosophical question. Others use the browser that comes installed on their computer and never give the matter another thought. And for some enterprises, which browsers their employees use can be a big deal.

Sometimes these issues are technical: Certain browsers don't work with some applications. (I'm talking to you, Internet Explorer 6.) Sometimes its practical: Companies don't want to support more than one browser. (You're out of luck, FireFox.) Sometimes security and privacy concerns mean that enterprises don't want employees to use a particular browser. And sometimes it's political, where companies want to use products from a particular company -- or don't want to use products from a particular company. (I don't know if it's still true, but at one time Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) did its best to avoid using any Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) products.)

But seriously, why bother worrying about it?

I don't. I'm easy. Despite initial admonitions from the IT department here at TechWeb to rely only on IE6 (IE6?!), I use all three major browsers -- Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Chrome -- pretty much all the time. And I'd be happy to add Opera or Safari or any other valid choices, too. In fact, most times I have at least three different browsers open at once, usually with multiple tabs open in each one.

And I think it makes sense for enterprises not just to allow, but to encourage, users actively to do the same. Here's why...

While the various browsers now share far more similarities than differences, they still retain certain strengths and weaknesses that best suit them for different tasks.

For example, I use IE for my day-to-day Web work. Not because I think it's the best browser out there, but because it's the most popular browser out there. Most of the time, I want to see exactly what most other users are seeing, and have the best chance of using whatever functionality the Website offers. So I keep IE loaded up with all the popular add-ons like Flash and Silverlight. I keep everything turned on and ready to go. I accept cookies so I don't have to log into the sites I visit regularly. Basically, I use IE to create a completely mainstream Web browsing experience.

But I also run Firefox, tricked out the with the add-ons and extensions that let me customize it to suit my particular needs. Sure, extensions are now available for other browsers, but Firefox has by far the biggest and best collection of choices, from ad blockers to downloaders to converters to security enhancers and script blockers. And Firefox is set to dump its cookies at the end of every session. That's good for security and privacy, but it also lets me have a "virgin" experience every time I visit a Website. That can be surprisingly illuminating, pointing out log-in and registration issues that plague new users to a particular site or online service.

And finally, I use Chrome's Application Shortcuts to run Web apps as if they were "real" apps, without having to waste screen space or brain bandwidth on browser controls I don't need. (Yes, I know this feature is now available on other browsers, but Chrome had it first and I still like its implementation best.) Application Shortcuts are especially useful on netbooks and other machines with small screens.

Obviously, not every enterprise employee has the same needs that I do or wants to be bothered with multiple browsers (not that it's much of a bother). The point is that there are real benefits to using multiple browsers, not just because of their inherent capabilities, but also because you can configure each one differently to meet specific sets of needs.

That could be valuable to many users, and easily outweighs the security and simplicity benefits of forcing -- or even "encouraging" -- the entire enterprise to standardize on a single browser.

On the other hand, as far as I'm concerned, there's never any excuse for allowing anyone to keep using IE6. It's an abomination and needs to be stamped out as quickly as possible.

Follow Fredric Paul on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/TheFreditor.