Mint Linux Firefox scrollbar fix

Part of the reason I have moved away from Firefox is because of its scrollbar issue in Linux.

Ever since GTK 3 (or earlier), scrollbar in Firefox goes to when you click rather than jump a page when you click on its blank area.  This is very annoying when you are reading an article and you are not equipped with a mouse with a scroll wheel.

Anyway, the fix is quite simple.  You just need to add the below to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

[Settings]
gtk-primary-button-warps-slider=0

 If the file doesn't exist, you just create it, i.e. touch ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

Firefox and add-on

Firefox and Opera are two browsers I used on my Ubuntu machine. However, I always thought Firefox is less stable when it comes to Flash heavy website. Today, I finally fed up with all these crashes, and search Google again to see if there is a solution to my problem. Well, it seems my unstable Firefox problem can also caused by bad add-on. So, I went through my add-on list and start to uninstall them one by one. I started by the one which is flash related.

I have this add-on called Download Helper, which I used to get flash videos from site like YouTube. I have been using it on my Windows version of Firefox for a long time now. I don't if it is a coincident or real, ever since I have uninstalled it, my Firefox seems to be a bit more happier.

Ubuntu as an alternative to Windows

After numerous calls from a friend for his troubled Windows XP PC, I finally put a copy of Ubuntu on his PC and told him to give it a fair trial. As an operating system, Ubuntu has made a tremendous leap from geek only Linux to a more general Linux. As my friend uses USB Wifi stick and HP USB printer, I was a bit worried about the possible compatibility problems. To my surprise, Ubuntu picks up the Belkin USB Wifi adapter and the HP All-in-one printer straight away. I can even use XSan to scan pictures. Instead needing to battle with Windows and numerous visits to Windows Update, I have manage to get the Ubuntu system up and running in an hour. I don't know if my friend will accept the system at the end, but I am certainly impressed its much improved support to hardware.

Since my friend's family mainly use the computer for internet, I don't think they will feed much a different. However, I am a bit worried about Firefox. First, it is not that stable. It seems to be very easy to crash for sites with Flash contents. Also, CSS drop down menu still goes behind Flash videos. Anyway, hopefully my friend's family can see beyond these little glitches, and can see Ubuntu as a more secure system.

Smart Bookmarks

Smart bookmarks in Firefox 3 may be too smart. I may be a great idea or useful for some, but personally, I do not like the idea of having my action tracked. I would like to have an option to easily switch it off. Right now, I need to go to about:config to turn it off ... only if I can ... Firefox seems to refuse to have it switched off.

Anyway, if you are like me who does not like the Smart Bookmarks feature, here is what I did to my system to disable it. You can try to right click folders under the Smart Bookmarks except recent tags, and delete them. This seems sort of disable the Smart Bookmarks feature.

In addition, while I was trying to figure out a way to disable Smart Bookmarks, I found Firefox actually backing up bookmarks in the background. Again, I thought this is too sneaky. When I delete a bookmark, I want it to be really deleted. Options! Options! Options is the keyword! It is privacy!

Firefox 3 ...

Few days ago, I have upgraded my Ubuntu to the latest 8.0４ LTS. On my old laptop, it took a while, however, the whole process was smooth. This is something Microsoft can only dream off. Upgrade for Windows is a joke. Even though, there is an option for Windows to upgrade to a new version, it just too messy. The upgrade often left tons of old backup files behind and a broken system due to incompatible drivers. It may sound funny, but it is actually less a troubles to fresh install Window. Anyway, have enough talk about Windows.

Back to the subject, Firefox. Well, on the surface, the version 3 looks pretty much like the old one. However, once you checked out the options, you will see many things had changed under the hood. I sure many features are well come, however, there are few features that I personally not welcome. That is the "new improved" location bar. While you are typing an URL, the new location bar starts to show entries from address book that match your typing. This may be a handy feature for some, but personally, I felt it shows too much! I have looked around on Google, and it seems there is no option to turn it off. You can reduce the number of entries show to 0 by setting the

browser.urlbar.maxRichResults

, but it would still show you an entry from your bookmark.

Another feature that I found it annoying is the smart bookmark. Again, I don't like the idea it highlights the most recent vistied or created bookmark. I would really like to have options to switch off these "features" off in the future