So long firefox, it was fun while it lasted :(

[doctor bloomquist]

As of today, I'm uninstalling Firefox from my T23. I've been using Firefox since the pre version 1 days - even before I bought this laptop - and it's been a great ride watching the browser become so popular.

I'm not a browser bore - I don't care about benchmark tests or what have you. Firefox used to mean fast, pretty, amazingly functional and impervious to viruses. To look at firefox today, it's as if it was designed to make me scream at my thinkpad! The latest version has been out for ages and they still haven't fixed the broken trackpoint scrolling. Every time I forget this and update, I have to go back to 3.5.8.

I'm a student and my poor tiny mind is usually too tied up to think about why pages are so je-e-e-erky to navigate when there's a jpeg or two in them. I put it down to a 10 year old laptop & 16 mb graphics card. I actually thought it was the thinkpad's fault, sorry to say!
Well, here's the site that woke me up: http://www.bing.com/reference/semhtml/B ... orm=hphot1

Nothing special: just an interesting page with a photo of a temple I thought would make a nice wallpaper. Scrolling up and down this page was the spark that made me twig something's amiss, even in FF safe mode. I loaded up internet explorer - for probably the first time since I installed XP on the T23 - and it *raced* up and down the same page. Opera portable? Just as fast.

So bye bye firefox old chum, this is where we part ways. I hope the winds of change blow you a hurricane. I can't believe I thought it was just the thinkpad being old and slow all this time. As for me, I'm going to give Opera a go.

[rkawakami]

Tried the same thing you did... launched IE6 and yes it does scroll very smoothly up and down. But I noticed that Firefox has a floating window in the right margin. Do this: turn off Javascript, re-load the page and then see how Firefox performs. I've locked down IE as much as possible by turning off scripting and ActiveX controls even though I do not normally run it. I tried putting bing.com in my "trusted sites" list but I still don't see the floating window in IE.

Yes, Firefox does not execute Javascript very well. Hasn't since at least version 2.0.

What's your issue with the "broken trackpoint scrolling"? I'm running FF 3.6.2 and it works just as before. Which is not to say that sometimes it's sensitive to where you middle-click on the page to begin scrolling.

[doctor bloomquist]

I tried your javascript suggestion (after reinstalling firefox), and ff is more responsive (at the expense of disabling page content). Thanks for the suggestion! The same page in opera shows that windows to the right and is still fast and smooth scrolling. I will probably run both browsers over a week of use, because opera seems to be loading pages faster over the wifi.

My issue with the trackpoint scrolling in 3.6 is that it doesn't work for me on the T23, period. I press the centre button and nothing happens. I have to use the scrollbar or cursor keys to move up and down the page. I've read on the net various suggestions about smooth scrolling options and so on, unfortunately none have worked and I got a bit cheesed off investing a lot of time trying to fix it.

[rkawakami]

Assuming that you are using the IBM/Lenovo trackpoint driver, open up Control Panel/Mouse and click on the Trackpoint tab. In the middle of that window, select "Neither" (the other options being Scrolling and Magnifying Glass). It's a little counter-intuitive to not select the scrolling option but it's one of the first things I do when setting up a new OS.

I still understand if you switch over to Opera. Firefox has been getting a little bloated after all these years. My main complaints about it is that it takes up an inordinate amount of system memory and is slow to completely remove itself from memory. Right now it is taking up 134MB (out of 1GB) of memory, with only 8 tabs open and very few extensions and add-ons installed. I've enabled the "config.trim_on_minimize" setting which has helped out a little bit. Google "firefox reducing memory usage" for some tips.

[doctor bloomquist]

Thanks for the advice Ray; I changed the trackpoint option from scrolling to neither (something I'd never thought of), and updated to FF 3.6. It still did nothing till I checked the 'autoscrolling' FF option, and scrolling is working again!

I'm not sure I like the way it scrolls this way, but it actually works! Thanks a million. Whether or not I decide to stick with FF, at least this way it's still functional in the interim. I do think after so long, it's time I at least gave something else a chance, especially if it prolongs the speedy usefullness of this thinkpad. This laptop has been so useful, especially for the hours of essay/ dissertation typing. Anything I get after the T23 is going to be a step down.

[BruisedQuasar]

Here! Here! I tested the new version of Opera (10.10) in Win XP a few weeks ago & installed Seamonkey 2.0.4 to Puppy 4.31. I was so impressed I removed Firefox(FF) from all my PCs and O/S! I strongly advised all who look to me for PC advice & help (such as it is ) and strongly advised they chuck FF for Opera.

I knew the problem wasn't my T-23 as I also operate a Dell Gaming PC, a Dell dual core laptop and two Dell workhouse Desktops. FF runs no better on them. I've been skeptical for a few years about Mozilla's claim that FF opens slowly because of Windows. FF 3.XX crashes too often for me. I can get those headaches from Windows! The Seamonkey version of FF opens much faster in Linux distros and in Windows. Recently, I began using Knoppix and observed the Iceweasel version of FF performs better than FF.

You will enjoy Opera. They have more add-ons & They have cleaned up the box. A full menu contains the many choices FF pollutes the viewable area with (in the form of tool bars). Tip: click on the big red 'O' located at the left top corner for menu.

--Bruised

[Sandstorm83]

I was able to fix the lack of scrolling in Firefox on my X30 by installing the latest Trackpoint driver. The "newest" driver version listed on the Lenovo site for both the T23 and X30 is 3.55 but I used the 4.72 version listed under the X31 and it works perfectly.

[doctor bloomquist]

Update: I'm still using both browsers as I get used to Opera, but for anyone else who wants to continue using firefox and traditional trackpoint scrolling, someone posted a solution that works for me on FF 3.6.3, in which you modify a line in tp4table.dat. I've lost the link, if I can find it I will post it here.

ps I haven't tried sandstorms solution but good call if it works!

[m88k]

I too was an early firefox adopter; I liked the idea of Gecko without the feel of Netscape. (Mozilla/Seamonkey STILL feels like a browser that was first released 15 years ago!)

I abandoned Firefox last year for everything but Netflix (Instant Watch requires full silverlight support, which means FF or IE). When I did a recent clean install of Windows, I didn't install FF. IE plays instant watch just as well, and Opera and Chrome meet my other needs. There are a couple sites that don't like Opera, like some of the things I have to use for school, but Chrome appears to automatically lie to them about it's name. The server is only supposed to let IE, FF and Safari through.

I've heard disabling IPv6 in FF helps speed it up significantly; apparently it's another piece the developers have implemented badly.

[Vempele]

I abandoned Firefox last year for everything but Netflix (Instant Watch requires full silverlight support, which means FF or IE).

How full? http://www.favbrowser.com/how-to-run-si ... -in-opera/

Anyway, Opera and Chrome are the only browsers I consider usable. Whoever made the tab bar scrollable in FF2 (and caused it to be adopted by all the other browsers) deserves to be shot. I don't even remember the last time I had few enough tabs open in Opera that FF could have shown half of them at the same time!