You always could disable Flash in IE, yes, but you had to wade through several menus and tabs and check boxes to do so. You also had to restart the browser, IIRC, it's been a while. This sounds a bit easier.
Of course, what I like about Opera is... you can just surf with plug-ins off, then when you hit a page where you want them on you just hit F12, click the menu option, and refresh the page. Then you can hit F12 and click the menu option off again. Takes about 5 seconds. Even better, I hear the next version has site-specific settings...
AFAIK, Firefox is just as easy in its own way. Tell me, why do people use IE again?
Peace & Luv, Liz