Help with firefox, icons in Gutsy

[Scott R. Ehrlich]

My parents have an of-the-shelf P3 system (I put it together for them) 
dualboot WinXP and Ubuntu Gutsy.   I'm trying to get them to migrate 
completely to Gutsy, and they are almost ready to try it, but they pointed 
out some things I can't resolve yet -

I gave them gnome, as it is closest to WinXP's layout -

- When starting firefox, the browser opens, but the mouse pointer/pinwheel 
remains active for about 10 more seconds, then returns to a pointer.   Is 
firefox that power-hungry now it needs a little more time to load? 
Firefox in Windows works instantly.   Not sure of other apps also 
experience this delay.

- I want to change the OpenOffice Word Processor icon to Microsoft's W 
(for word - I have a W .jpeg).  I've done google searching, and none of 
the Launcher options or properties of OO permit me to change its icon.
What am I missing?

I would hate to see Windows XP with Service Pack 2 outperform Ubuntu and 
have my parents disuaded from using it because of these "flaws".

Ubuntu is fully updated.

Thanks.

Scott