If it worked for "everyone else" then there wouldn't still be people complaining would there? I don't have problems of the same magnitude the GP had, but Firefox has run like shit in comparison to Chrome for me for quite some time. I don't know what it is and I'm not going to sit here and agonize over a memory watching app or something to try to figure it out myself. You know why? I switched to Chrome. I try Firefox out every once in a while to see what's up. This version, actually, is the first one that hasn't run like shit for me. I'm actually pretty happy.
Maybe it's the addons. Maybe not. I tested out a completely add-on free Firefox on one of my computers and it ran like complete dogshit. Not to mention the fact that what is the point of the browser if I can't use Addons? And before the argument that "it's shitty addons" comes up, Chrome has addons too and they aren't screwing up my browser like the Firefox ones apparently do.
It doesn't really matter who is to blame because when it comes down to it, I can do the same things I do in Firefox in Chrome now and Chrome doesn't run like shit. That's pretty much all there is to it.