I've always been a minimalist desktop person. My wallpaper is usually just black with a few (non-standard) icons on it. I like keyboard shortcuts for everything. Mostly dark screen is also my preference. For me information should be the light, no the other way around...

That also applies to browsers. While Firefox was not really good yet, I was going with AvantBrowser in compact mode. I almost never used a browser without the "small icons" option set. I do hate those toolbars every application wants to add to your browser. So, for me, using a direct, simple and minimal broswer window is always the best way to go. I also rarely maximize a browser window.

Regarding the screen size I believe the 1024 columns and many rows as the aspect ratio requires is a good choice currently. If you target audience will certainly use smaller screens a more adaptive page sould be created. If that's not the case, users will be expecting to roll the page oftenly anyway. I read HN on my mobile (using Opera) and it adapts quite well.