yes and there needs to be an option to disable it or hide it
Not everything needs to have an option to be disabled and hidden. This was a feature on the old boards that most people wanted back, and now you have a bunch of people complaining.
That said, it's probably not so easy to hide it, since I'm betting it's just static html inserted into the skin.
Also, if it's too big for your laptop screens, make the text smaller (Ctrl+Mousewheel/scroll). Also, I don't have any formatting issues in either firefox or chrome, but I'm sure the admins will address other browsers eventually.
You people in general complain too much. Seriously.