This is very counter-intuitive and is an odd change from previous
versions. Why would the user expect to click a button the left to open
a tab that pops in on the far right. There should be a plus sign right
where the tab-to-be is.
A design blunder and a very annoying one in practice. It's like having
the on button on the back of the TV.
The "new tab" button for FF5 is on the right. However, when I first
updated to FF5, the button was on the left. This was a problem associated
with openSUSE extensions which disappeared when they were removed.
Obviously you haven't got the same extension but it could be another one
causing your problem.
--
Graham Davis, UK
User of Mozillarish stuff since Netscape 1.2N.
Running KDE 4.6.5 on openSUSE 11.4.