Issues since upgrading to Leopard

While many of the features on the latest version of OS X known as Leopard are great and have enhanced my user-experience (Spaces and Time Machine to name just two...) I have really noticed a couple of performance issues on my MacBook Pro.

1. It now takes my machine a lot longer to boot up when switching it on. To counter this, I have taken to letting it sleep when I am not using it (like overnight for example) however this is not ideal.

2. Since the upgrade I have also noticed a very marked increased in the number of times both browsers I have installed are crashing. I currently have Firefox v 2.0.0.12 and Safari 3.0.4 and the dreaded spinning beachball of death has been appearing much more frequently over the last couple of months.

If anybody out there has any suggestions on how to improve this situation, or just wants to bitch about the same problems, let me know.....