Latest Firefox with 85 installed addons (and yes, I need each one of them), about two dozen user scripts, all on a decade old PC with 32-bit win7 (installed when it came out)... and everything works perfectly. Unless I open 1050+ tabs (upper limit when it becomes unresponsive on my setup), but I have no need for that.
If you're getting crashes, I think it's more due to incompatibility between certain FF plugins and extensions, maybe something on a driver level, too (lots of people either don't care to or don't know how to properly update drivers; running an installer is often not enough).
Update your plugins ? Java, flash, others. Disable the ones you don't need, eg. I had multiple MS Office plugins, I disabled them all. I had Adobe PDF Reader, Sumatra PDF and Foxit PDF, disabled all except Sumatra (fastest inline renderer).
Do A/B test with plugins, ie. disable half plugins, restart, try to force a crash, see what happens, adapt approach.
I tried many alternatives at some point, but, for me, nothing can beat the performance, usability, practicality and flexibility of a well-modded Firefox.
100 tabs open in TreeStyleTab (chrome = x.x at 30+), all searchable with either Tabhunter (titles; ctrl+alt+y) or FastestSearch (content; RegEx; ctrl+shift+f), Pentadactyl for mouseless navigation, mouse gestures for when I actually use mouse, dozens of sites accessible with 2-3-letter mnemonics (alt+d->bhw->enter, alt+d->g1w %s -> instant google results for search phrase, only results update in the last 1 wk, etc)... and tons of other addons, scripts, macros, binds, etc. Basically, I've been using this setup for years, and any time I'd feel dissatisfied with anything, or when I'd feel something could be improved, to be more efficient or just more comfortable, I'd attempt to find (or create) a solution. It has been evolving with me, adapting to my needs, goals, preferences. So it's hardly even 'Firefox' anymore.
So even if it was possible to recreate the plugin structure in some other browser, you can see why ? for a nerdcore (neckbeardcore?) netizen ? switching browser wouldn't be practical.
Not to mention that Chrome and Opera become unusable at 30+ tabs, even with a more conservative addon usage.
