How to get better performance out of Firefox

There are a number of people who prefer using Firefox to Internet Explorer as their default browser. Firefox is a pretty fast browser, and very customizable. So here's a top on how to configure some more settings that should speed up things for Firefox users. This refers the complete article available at Computer World:

The closest analogy to how Firefox manages its internal settings is the Windows Registry. Each setting, or preference, is given a name and stored as a string (text), integer (number) or Boolean (true/false) value. However, Firefox doesn't keep its settings in the registry, but in a file called prefs.js. You can edit prefs.js directly, but it's often easier to change the settings through the browser window.
Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter, and you'll see all the settings currently enumerated in prefs.js, listed in alphabetical order. To narrow down the hundreds of configuration preferences to just the few you need, type a search term into the Filter: bar. (Click the Show All button or just clear the Filter: bar to get the full list back again.)
Here are a few caveats to keep in mind as you explore and tweak:
Not everyone will get the same benefits by enabling these tweaks. This is especially true for changing the network settings. If you habitually visit sites that don't allow a large number of connections per client, for instance, you won't see much benefit from raising the number of connections per server.
Keep a log of everything you change, or make backups. If you tweak something now and notice bizarre activity in a week, you'll want to be able to track back to what was altered and undo it. Firefox does show which about:config changes have been set manually, but this isn't always the most accurate way to find out what you changed.

So, if you want to experiment to see what can be tweaked on your Firefox installation, this is a good way to do it. Be careful, and remember that these changes are happening at your own risk.
Some of the changes that are possible with this approach are:
- Speeding up page display
- Controlling the tabbed browsing
- Change the user interface
- Stop memory hogging