Well, you can still use all of the Google feeds with Firefox. It'll just be something like a built-in ticker in the browser's statusbar scrolling updated article titles from your predetermined feeds, where you can hover over them to get a preview or click to visit the article's website. Edit - yeah, you can do the email thing. Here's the extension "infoRSS" for example: http://inforss.mozdev.org/index.html
Have you tried the new Google Reader interface? I wasn't a big fan of the old one, but the new Google Reader rules! I use it for all my RSS feeds, and for Podcasts -- it RULES at podcasts. I've tried lots of different readers, and IMO none of them are as clean, fast, and easy to use as Google's. The only thing that I really wish they'd add is the ability to search an RSS feed. There are workarounds to do it, but it's a pain.
well i signed up for google, subscribed to the stuff i wanted and got some old feeds. i dont know if i will get email updates or not. im still a newb. if you have any tips enlighten me.