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Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

bugzilla.mozilla.org

171–180 of 443 posts

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#171
post #143

If you're on a Mac and using FF (probably not FF specific), turning off "ambient mode" in youtube can save 30% cpu. I just found this out while searching why FF was taking 90% of my cpu while watching youtube videos in normal mode, but went down to 40% use if viewing in full screen. Turns out that this youtube "ambient mode" was the culprit. My lap is now cooler and the fan doesn't turn on anymore. I wonder how much…

To save a search: "Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in Dark theme more immersive, by casting gentle colors from the video, into your screen's background."

[dead]

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#172

Quick napkin math of the wasted power : Firefox has ~300e6 users, let's assume the bug wasted 5 extra watts 4 hours a day. That's 250 megawatts saved, the equivalent of an average coal power plant. Because some Microsoft engineer missed a bug.

> That's 250 megawatts saved, the equivalent of an average coal power plant. Because some Microsoft engineer missed a bug. Are you sure you want to invoke this logic? Because following it through imagine the energy savings if Firefox users switched to Chrome.

> Because following it through imagine the energy savings if Firefox users switched to Chrome

i've read everywhere that Firefox at this point is far more energy efficient than Chrome...is that not true?

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#173
post #170

Firefox-related CPU use is only reduced by 75% when this bug is caused. NOT in the general case as this title implies

That's actually fairly clear in the title - the second clause depends upon the first.

Then why are comments assuming a large decrease in power consumption?

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#174
post #143

If you're on a Mac and using FF (probably not FF specific), turning off "ambient mode" in youtube can save 30% cpu. I just found this out while searching why FF was taking 90% of my cpu while watching youtube videos in normal mode, but went down to 40% use if viewing in full screen. Turns out that this youtube "ambient mode" was the culprit. My lap is now cooler and the fan doesn't turn on anymore. I wonder how much…

To save a search: "Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in Dark theme more immersive, by casting gentle colors from the video, into your screen's background."

Neat idea, I bet the intern had fun implementing it, why was it on by default?

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#175

Quick napkin math of the wasted power : Firefox has ~300e6 users, let's assume the bug wasted 5 extra watts 4 hours a day. That's 250 megawatts saved, the equivalent of an average coal power plant. Because some Microsoft engineer missed a bug.

> Because some Microsoft engineer missed a bug

That might be a bit too kind given how much Google liked to Oops Firefox. Wouldn't be surprised if MS did too.

Oops:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3389882/former-mozilla...

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To save a search: "Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in Dark theme more immersive, by casting gentle colors from the video, into your screen's background."

oh i saw this happen to me the other day, i was wondering if it was a new youtube feature or something. can't say i care for it.

Just noticed it recently too, though it might have been an update to the stylus theme I use, I actually quite like it

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love calculations like this and hope they are part of every engineer’s line of thinking. I originally came across this thinking in Andy Hertzfeld’s book - https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt Performance is time, energy, heat. It’s one of the easiest features to get and there are lots of tools, research, and philosophies to help get it. Memory and storage are similar. For anyone working on l…

It can be a bit dangerous (especially to your employer) to continue that line of thinking, though. How many pieces of software do we collectively work on which would make the world a better place if they didn't exist at all ?

Is that really a downside?

In some cases you convince your organization to shift focus onto more useful products, and that can be a really great feeling. In other cases (company is too large, management too committed) it helps you confront exactly who you're working for. Because if you're going to sell your soul, you should at least make sure you're getting a good price.

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#178

Quick napkin math of the wasted power : Firefox has ~300e6 users, let's assume the bug wasted 5 extra watts 4 hours a day. That's 250 megawatts saved, the equivalent of an average coal power plant. Because some Microsoft engineer missed a bug.

This is just one bug in the world affecting power usage with Firefox. There are loads more like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042 which caused me to abandon it on macOS as my primary browser.

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To save a search: "Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in Dark theme more immersive, by casting gentle colors from the video, into your screen's background."

Neat idea, I bet the intern had fun implementing it, why was it on by default?

> Neat idea, I bet the intern had fun implementing it, why was it on by default?

Total speculation, but Firefox seems to be pushing out a lot of UI gimmicks. Maybe they're trying to drum up interest in the browser that way, since they seem intent on killing many of their other differentiators.

Re: Microsoft fixes 5-year-old Defender bug, reducing Firefox-related CPU use by 75%

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To save a search: "Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in Dark theme more immersive, by casting gentle colors from the video, into your screen's background."

Neat idea, I bet the intern had fun implementing it, why was it on by default?

Because the target audience for the feature is not tech savvy people but common users whom won't know it exists until it is shown to them/might be intimidated to delve onto FF settings

If you are tech savvy, you are then expected to be able to "bear the burden" of turning the feature off if it bothers you

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