We're using Google Chrome here at work and I still occasionally have the exploding gifs. I have far more trouble when I'm on IE at home, but the problem isn't completely unique to IE. I would assume that Firefox handles the animated gifs much like Chrome- better, but still not perfect. I guess "flipping the switch" for IE also corrects the rare stack of circumstances that cause other browsers to puke, but that's getting to a depth where I have to call in smarter folk than me.

It might just be easier to blame Arhu for the whole lot.