Coming back into the homebrew scene...

It's been years since I've played around with PSP homebrew, I kind of fell away from it after my PSP started to malfunction, but recently I've been contemplating picking up one of the new PSP slims. Back when I was a part of the homebrew community, I recall the majority of the homebrew being for 1.5, and having to downgrade to that version when I initially started. I stayed with things up until about the release of the first few OE firmwares from Dark_Alex.

I'd like to get back into the thick of things, but it's been such a long time! I've scoured stickies and threads around the forum, but I'm having trouble finding definite information. I've only got a few questions, these being:

What's the best firmware for homebrew these days? Is it an OE, or an official version, and where can I get it?
Is booting up homebrew still as much of a hassle?
Is the future of homebrew looking up?