for the second questions - there is no separate connector plugin for Firefox with the Standalone (SA) client - mostly SA is designed for people using other browsers (which have separate plugins). What you can do is use regular Zotero in FF and have it share a database with SA.
But can I ask why you would want to do that? As long as you're using FF anyway, pretty much everything works better with the plugin than with the standalone - proxy redirection, doi and similar translators etc. and with tab mode, I find it hard to think of a use case.

I very much doubt the standalone - which is essentially just a copy of Zotero running through XUL runner instead of Firefox - is going to be the solution, though. The problems should be exactly the same.

For your speed issues I'd do some tests with different set-ups, including FF 3.6.x, the old OOo plugin (3.1.b1), the trunk version of the Ooo plugin etc. to see if that helps.

standalone upon installation should give you the option to share the FF-Zotero library (I don't know exactly how this is currently set up, if it can be done after installation - look at the preferences) - my understanding is, though, that that means you can't have both open at the same time. But you could surf, close FF, open SA and try to work with that - not sure if that's viable
Alternatively you might dabble some with SA and Chromium/Chrome to see if that works - overall you should be aware that SA really is alpha software, so a somewhat bumpy ride is expected.

Hello versa:

I'm now working fine with LibreOffice and Zotero. I just did the following steps:

1) Downloaded the Zotero Standalone Alpha version for GNU/Linux and uncompress it.

2) Under the uncompressed folder I navigate with Nautilus, or (Explorer under Windows) with the following path: .../Zotero_linux-i686/extensions/zoteroOpenOfficeIntegration@zotero.org/install/ and then click to the archive Zotero_OpenOffice_Integration.oxt (the OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice plug in to Zotero) to install it automatically to LibreOffice.

3) Then, open the binary file of the Standalone, under /Zotero_linux-i686/ a binary file that is called simply zotero (under GNU/Linux).

4) Using Zotero I went to Preferences -> Cite, and then I just wrote the following paths:

UNO Directory: file:///usr/share/libreoffice/basis-link/ure-link/share/java/
soffice Directory: file:///usr/lib/libreoffice/program/

5) Then, I just re-start LibreOffice and Zotero, and everything worked for me!

The following Spanish language link helped me:

http://tramullas.com/2010/11/25/zotero-integracion-con-openoffice-y-problemas-con-java-en-ubuntu/

On other hand, I do agree that the Standalone version that woks with Firefox is not a very stable version. Is strange that the Zotero Standalone Alpha version looks more stable than the version that supposed to be "the stable version". I had a lot of problems with the current Standalone version with Firefox (the "stable" one):

http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/17285/zotero-standalone-crashing-with-openofficeorg-ubuntu-1010/#Item_4

By the way, on that moment I used Ubuntu 10.10 with OpenOffice.org and Zotero Standalone Alpha solving the Firefox-Zotero problem reported on the moment. Now I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 having the same happy results.

Sorry for my bad English. I hope that this explanation help you to solve your particular case.

Hello:

¡Zotero Standalone Alpha version is working under Windows 7, also! I just repeat the same steps but closing Firefox. So maybe the problem around Windows 7 and LibreOffice is something related with Firefox when is open simultaneously with Zotero and LibreOffice. I have the conjecture that the problem is around the java version of Windows 7, because it interfaces the 3 softwares in conflict: LibreOffice and Zotero in one hand, and Firefox on the other.

I'll post this as bug on other post.