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eobet · Mar 6, 2007 , 04:54 AM

Simple question, really.

I hope the answer is that Firefox is seriously ****ed up on OS X in some way.

Anyone else experienced this or know where I can report it?

EDIT: Saw Bugzilla... what a mess! Can't be bothered to browse 10 000 bug reports before I post mine. I'll switch back to Shiira instead.

cgc · Mar 6, 2007 , 08:11 AM

My Firefox (2.02) sits idle at <0.2% most of the time. What page do you have loaded in FireFox? If there are a lot of ads, videos, etc. I could see FF using some CPU, otherwise you have something wrong with FF. Do you have any FF plugins or extensions running?

wataru · Mar 6, 2007 , 09:10 AM

With Firefox and a whole mess of other apps open on my iBook G4 I'm idling at less than 10%. Sounds like something's wrong with your install.

Chuckit · Mar 6, 2007 , 09:15 AM

Is it actually idling, or do you have some page open that might have, say, a Flash animation at the bottom?

eobet · Mar 6, 2007 , 11:20 AM

Both me and my girlfriend average about 10-20 tabs a session, and probably half of them have flash animations in the banner ads (or a youtube or two).

But why would this matter, since only one tab is displayed at any one time?

mac128k-1984 · Mar 6, 2007 , 02:14 PM

FWIW I find firefox for the pc no better. It will suddenly grab 80 - 90% of the cpu even if I'm not surfing and its just sitting there.

Rumor · Mar 6, 2007 , 02:37 PM

It caches the intarnets for you to browse faster.

JKT · Mar 6, 2007 , 02:41 PM

Not directly related to Firefox, but here is an explanation as to how various different factors can cause WebKit to grab too much CPU when it should be idle:

Surfin’ Safari - Blog Archive � Background Music

wataru · Mar 7, 2007 , 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by eobet

Both me and my girlfriend average about 10-20 tabs a session, and probably half of them have flash animations in the banner ads (or a youtube or two).

But why would this matter, since only one tab is displayed at any one time?

Gee, then, I wonder why?

Chuckit · Mar 7, 2007 , 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by eobet

Both me and my girlfriend average about 10-20 tabs a session, and probably half of them have flash animations in the banner ads (or a youtube or two).

But why would this matter, since only one tab is displayed at any one time?

Because scripts and animations continue to be processed regardless of whether the page they're on is visible at that exact moment. That's just how Firefox chooses to do it. (For proof, open up a YouTube link in a background tab. It will start playing without ever becoming visible.)

eobet · Mar 7, 2007 , 04:23 PM

That's a waste and should be a toggle, imo.

I'm back using Shiira (webkit) and it doesn't start youtube movies in the background (or even movies lower down on the same page unless you scroll down).

marsbt · Mar 7, 2007 , 06:11 PM

Flash animations and adverts are a pain. I use Adblock Plus (with Adblock Filterset.G updater) and Flashblock. It makes the browser's life much easier.

My reasoning is why should flash be given default permission to play flash content without even asking. With Flashblock, you can play the flash animation you want only after you click on it to play. Simple and clean.

neyoung · Mar 11, 2007 , 08:19 AM

The same thing happens to me. But only after extended use. I usually 10+ tabs open in one window and after a few days firefox gets slugish and starts to hog the cpu. At that point I just bookmark all the open tabs. Restart firefox, and reopen all the tabs that I bookmarked. the cpu usage drops WAY down and I go back to whatever I was doing.