It takes about:config between 2 minutes and 5 minutes just to open. That's after a reboot and nothing else open in the browser and no other apps open. Is this normal? It seems like it will take forever to make brontide's changes this way.

With regard to brontide's changes, brontide, you have:
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", -1) in the latest post;
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 16384) in an earlier post;
and about:config?browser.cache.memory.capacity=8192 in a third.
The "-1" must be a typo, no? Any conclusion on what's best?

Then for max-connections, you sometimes suggest 2, sometimes 3, and sometimes 4.

For max-connections-per-server you've been at 1 and at 4 (although you're consistently at 1 for persistent connections per server).

With pipelining maxrequests you've been at 1,000 and at 10,000.

I'm also wondering if you're still recommending these additions to the prefs.js file:
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay",2000);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 1250000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);

Not knowing linux and working off of cheatsheets of commands, I can't figure out how to edit the prefs.js file. I can get to it via emelFM2. But then it seems I can only view it, can't even copy the file's contents as text.

In Xterm I've tried, before and after sudo gainroot, "less /home/user/.mozilla/microb/prefs.js" and "vim /home/user/.mozilla/microb/prefs.js" and "gvim /home/user/.mozilla/microb/prefs.js" -- but to no avail. (I do it, of course, without the " ".)

Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing!

So, how do I edit the prefs.js file?

(I haven't learned ssh yet. If that's the easiest, I guess just say so. I've downloaded OpenSSH and I've installed WinSCP on my WinXP laptop, but I haven't tried using it yet. I haven't even figured out if I'm supposed to use them with USB or wifi.)

brontide, none of this pointing-out of the discrepancies is meant critically. I really appreciate your doing the experimenting and publishing your conclusions for all of us. But since I understand none of the changes (except for font size ), I'd like to get it as close to right as you know on my first try.