Well, just downloaded the latest Firefox beta, and it looks like they're starting to go in the direction Chrome did, it definitely renders pages faster than the previous version, I think Firefox is going to at least catch up with Chrome in speed with this new version.

Release Notes: http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5b4/releasenotes/

how is the browser handling with copious amount of extensions(25-35)?

I'm running 31 addons right now, which isn't all of mine, due to compatibility issues, and it's running very smoothly, the older version would skip on youtube videos, and that isn't happening with this one. With those add-ons, with a SEN page open(this one), it's taking 239 MB of RAM, about 10 MB less than its predecessor, although it has less add-ons, so my guess is that they're about the same.

Doing what chrome did is exactly it.

This version (which was originally called 3.1) has, like Chrome, a virtual machine in which javascript is compiled. Apparently the trace monkey VM that this Fx uses is even faster than V8 in Chrome, but it remains to be seen if the Gecko engine in this Fx will let it get past webkit in Chrome.

If it doesn't crash all the time like firefox 3 does I might have to check it out. I miss Firefox 2... it ran so damn well and then I upgraded to 3 and firefox has been shit since.