Flash plug-in : CPU salesman ?!

[Chris]

Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> Ah, thanks Peter. So it's not (completely), the end of the world. 
> Flash animations sites aren't inherently CPU hungry then, it's only this
> particular site.
> Still, the guy who made all these animations probably created them with
> Macromedia's own program.
> If that program is capable of producing such inefficient animations,
> then I think Macromedia is still to blame...

This is highly dependent on the OS, browser, and version of Flash.  In 
order from best to worst performance (on my hardware):

1. It runs the best on Windows with IE
2. OS X with Safari
3. Windows with browsers other than IE
4. OS X with browsers other than Safari
5. Flash runs the absolute worst on Linux, especially with Firefox

I was running some older version of Flash and that page was using 15% 
CPU in Windows/IE (in VMware), after upgrading to the latest Flash it 
uses 30% or so.  In Linux/Firefox it uses well over 60% CPU on my 
machine.  OSX/Safari was about 25% CPU with OSX/Firefox pushing 90% CPU.

That page is a horrible design.  There are an insane number of Flash 
instances all running at the same time.

-- 
// Chris