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Can some folks chime in on FF battery usage on macOS? For a couple of reasons I’ve spent the last couple years in Safari-land, but FF is always a click away if

Can some folks chime in on FF battery usage on macOS? For a couple of reasons I’ve spent the last couple years in Safari-land, but FF is always a click away if it’s starting to improve in that area. I just was having issues a couple years ago with FF being an energy hog, and thus switched. (Though the autofill of SMS security codes in Safari is such a nice quality of life improvement! I’m betting it’s a private API, but man I want other browsers to implement it too.)

X0Ninja 5y ago
I’ve been using Firefox as my sole browser on macOS for at least a year now and my battery life is excellent. I haven’t noticed a difference from Safari.
beingflo 5y ago
I'm seeing incredible battery life in firefox on my M1 macbook air. Although maybe I just don't have high expectations after my linux based lenovo before this.
- tedk-42 5y ago
  Nothing to do with firefox and everything to do with M1.
bgro 5y ago
I haven't revisited this issue in several years, but the solution at that point was to use the developer version.
ragnese 5y ago
I'm not a big-time Mac user- only using it for work. So, I'm usually plugged in to a power source. I also don't use Chrome or Safari, so my answer is almost completely useless to you. :P But, those times when I am "free range", and I pull up the Activity Monitor thing, Docker and my IDE(s) are almost always using more energy than Firefox for me, unless I have a tab open that's doing something stupid. That being said, it's always in the top 3, beating out the mail client and Teams chat. I don't know if that's better or worse than Chrome or Safari, but I wouldn't be surprised that either of those are superior than Firefox in technical metrics.
the_duke 5y ago
I think the rendering pipeline issue that caused excessive battery usage on MacOS was fixed quite a while ago.
sleepyfran 5y ago
I've been using it for around a year now and honestly I haven't noticed any big difference with Safari in my MBA M1. Would definitely recommend to give it another try!
cweagans 5y ago
I've been very happy with FF power usage on macOS. It's still a web browser and with all of the nonsense that comes with the "modern" web, it's still a relatively heavy application, but a tab suspending extension will go a long way toward fixing that, as will an ad blocker. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... is what converted me from Chrome to Firefox. Coupled with a couple bits of config (https://github.com/cweagans/dotfiles/tree/master/Library/Application%20Support/Firefox/Profiles/cweagans.default-release https://github.com/cweagans/dotfiles/tree/master/Library/App...), it's a really nice experience. Also, you may be interested in https://www.ohtipi.com/ https://www.ohtipi.com/ for SMS security codes.
- ljoshua 5y ago
  Ah, interesting mention of Ohtipi, thanks! I'll have to dive into the source a bit to see how it feels. Thank you!
BoxOfRain 5y ago
I'm using Firefox as the sole browser on a 2015 MacBook Pro, can't complain at all about the battery life even on that clapped out old battery.

X0Ninja 5y ago

I’ve been using Firefox as my sole browser on macOS for at least a year now and my battery life is excellent. I haven’t noticed a difference from Safari.

beingflo 5y ago

I'm seeing incredible battery life in firefox on my M1 macbook air. Although maybe I just don't have high expectations after my linux based lenovo before this.

tedk-42 5y ago
Nothing to do with firefox and everything to do with M1.

bgro 5y ago

I haven't revisited this issue in several years, but the solution at that point was to use the developer version.

ragnese 5y ago

I'm not a big-time Mac user- only using it for work. So, I'm usually plugged in to a power source. I also don't use Chrome or Safari, so my answer is almost completely useless to you. :P But, those times when I am "free range", and I pull up the Activity Monitor thing, Docker and my IDE(s) are almost always using more energy than Firefox for me, unless I have a tab open that's doing something stupid. That being said, it's always in the top 3, beating out the mail client and Teams chat. I don't know if that's better or worse than Chrome or Safari, but I wouldn't be surprised that either of those are superior than Firefox in technical metrics.

the_duke 5y ago

I think the rendering pipeline issue that caused excessive battery usage on MacOS was fixed quite a while ago.

sleepyfran 5y ago

I've been using it for around a year now and honestly I haven't noticed any big difference with Safari in my MBA M1. Would definitely recommend to give it another try!

cweagans 5y ago

I've been very happy with FF power usage on macOS. It's still a web browser and with all of the nonsense that comes with the "modern" web, it's still a relatively heavy application, but a tab suspending extension will go a long way toward fixing that, as will an ad blocker. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-tab/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... is what converted me from Chrome to Firefox. Coupled with a couple bits of config (https://github.com/cweagans/dotfiles/tree/master/Library/Application%20Support/Firefox/Profiles/cweagans.default-release https://github.com/cweagans/dotfiles/tree/master/Library/App...), it's a really nice experience. Also, you may be interested in https://www.ohtipi.com/ https://www.ohtipi.com/ for SMS security codes.

ljoshua 5y ago
Ah, interesting mention of Ohtipi, thanks! I'll have to dive into the source a bit to see how it feels. Thank you!

BoxOfRain 5y ago

I'm using Firefox as the sole browser on a 2015 MacBook Pro, can't complain at all about the battery life even on that clapped out old battery.