I resorted to that after a while, but too many websites wouldn't load properly, like back in the 90s.
Waterfox 64 bit here. Never had any update/bloatware/speed issues. You can set to clean cache every time it closes.
I have two partitions. One with Windows XP and the other with open source Fedora. I am down to two installed desktop applications requiring Windows so its still a must have. Web browsing with unix is faster. I never boot Windows to browse. It may be all the security that slows down windows, i dont know. Also, i never open mail on Windows. Ipad for that. Having dual boot machine is a good way to go IMO
I had a similar experience about 4 years ago, except that I had two harddrives rather than two partitions. I wanted to install Linux on the second drive without making any changes to the first. I thought that was harder than it needed to be, but I got it working. The bottomline for me was that Linux is an excellent choice for people who only use their computer for web browsing and email, or for scientist and enginers. I am neither, so I reluctantly stayed with Windows. But Microsoft is really pissing me off, and I keep thinking about changing again.
I have been using portable versions of both Chrome and Firefox - having them both operate off of a removable drive has relieved some of the system stress that I used to have. You can put it on a USB stick or Sd card (etc) but best used on a USB 3.0 device.
+1 You get so used to (maybe even need a few) some extensions that the software just becomes a memory hog. Look at your task manager when running Chrome and count how many "instances" are running in the processes tab.