zlacker

>>mconle+(OP)
TL;DR: Windows Defender had a bug that made certain system calls expensive on CPU cycles when Defender's Real-time Protection feature is enabled. After discovery, Mozilla reported this issue to Microsoft. Microsoft is releasing a patch that should result in lower CPU usage when using Firefox on sites like YouTube (a ~75% CPU usage reduction was noted when browsing YouTube in Firefox with the fixed version of Defender).

It seems like the HN submission form truncated the # from the end of the URL I linked to, which linked to the relevant comment. I'll try that here:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1441918#c82

and

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1441918#c91

>>mconle+h3
I'm curious how much excess energy has been consumed, and won't be consumed any longer, as a result of this improvement - even just limited to reduced CPU usage on Windows machines using Firefox to watch Youtube.

I love thinking about the impacts of tiny improvements at scale like this, might do some napkin math on it later and see if I can come up with something in the right order of magnitude.

>>cjblac+Tl
firefox browser share is teeny tiny these days

>>fsckbo+Wo
Teeny tiny multiplied by 7 Billion by 365 days per year by 24 hours per day by a fraction of a kW does add up.