The rate of improvement in Chrome, particularly in snappiness, is very high. I'd recommend you try it at least every 6 months. It is noticeably snappier on Ubuntu than Firefox for me, especially when switching tabs.
I did, I used Chrome and Chromium since it came out, until I discovered Vimperator a few months ago. Something about that plugin made FF a brand new browser that's just a joy to use, snappy enough that I don't notice the difference b/t it and Chrome/ium anymore, even tab switching, and even more stable with lots of tabs open (like ~45).