@TheMud:
Firefox is not really the problem when you're getting 90% CPU usage (it could be in certain cases), but what really is the problem (usually) is the myriad of Adobe Flash applications/plugins running inside multiple tabs.
I recommend FlashBlock (Firefox plugin) which stops Flash from playing until you click the little play button. Very handy and a great speed up.
There's one other occasion (other than severe bugs) that would cause a browser in general to exhibit high CPU usage, and that is a rogue Javascript. Not a cause as often as Flash though.
All this holds true for other platforms like Linux and Windows.
As for anti-virus software, if you're scanning in Windows, I've used ClamAV before, but it didn't catch some of the baddies that
www.freeav.com did, so I had to remove it. YMMV.
Lastly, if you discover the cause, it's good practice to share that info, because you will help the community you has helped you. So what were the 'rogue' startup processes/programs?
@Floid:
You're correct about ditto, and usually when it doesn't die is when there's a problem with umounting an image. So perhaps if an image is mounted (yet might not be visible on Finder) and it's trying to do stuff to it, it can cause these problems.
Skurk wrote:
Audun wrote:
all I can say is: "ew, mac"
That statement alone says "I don't know squat about computers" to me.
DITTO.
I mean, I understand some users are machosists and love the pain inflicted on them from Windows and Microsoft, but come on, you just got to rain on someone's parade just because you realize that someone's made a better choice and just having a tad bit of difficulty (something you should be happy, from your tone, you're experiencing every single day for 20 years now - if you've been a faithful since the 3.x days...) and unhappy with your self defacing choices?