I thought of TMP, too; I use it to open Ctrl-clicked links in tabs alongside the current one (but new, blank tabs at the right). In fact, the pref mentioned in the article will likely be controlled by TMP once it supports FF 3.6. (The lack of 3.6 support in TMP is keeping me from upgrading to 3.6!)

Thank you for the tip on how to disable the new tab placement. This irked me, not so much because of it’s function, but because there was no simple way to turn it off. I applaud the Firefox team for trying something different, but they need to provide an option to undo it, especially if it can be described as a preference (which it most certainly is).