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Firefox Touts Lower CPU Use for Large JPEGs, Faster PDF Viewer Startup (and AI Controls) (omgubuntu.co.uk) 111

Posted by EditorDavid from the building-browsers dept.
Firefox 156 is the second release since Mozilla moved to a twice-monthly release schedule, and the blog OMG Ubuntu notes it has faster start-up times for its built-in PDF viewer and also lower CPU usage when viewing large JPEG images: In Firefox 156, the browser now uses libjpeg-turbo's IDCT scaling to reduce images during decoding, rather than loading a full-size image into memory and then shrinking it. Benchmarks from the bug report show up to 20x less memory used during very large image loading, and decoding is up to twice as fast. Since these speeds were quite fast already, there's no perceptible difference to users. Behind the scenes, it's more efficient.

Firefox's built-in PDF viewer starts up to 45% faster in this release. The browser now loads the background PDF.js worker sooner, rather than launching it only when needed.

Sponsored suggestions in the address bar are live for users in France, Germany and Italy (Ouais!, Juhu!, etc). These are already available in some other locales. Don't want them? Disable them via Settings > Search > Firefox Suggest > Suggestions from Sponsors.

Besides that, the rest of this release is primarily bug fixes — worthwhile and welcome as always.
And in about two weeks Firefox 157 will be released, reports PC World. "That update should add support for JPEG XL (JXL), a modern image format that offers the same quality as JPEG at a significantly smaller size. Although JPEG XL was launched in 2021, Safari is the only browser to support it yet. For a short period, Chrome also supported it, but that ended in 2022."

Also, a recent Firefox blog post emphasized that it supports whatever level of AI engagement "is right for you... Because the only person telling you how much AI you need should be you." Opting out of upcoming and current AI features on your browser should not require endless navigation through multiple Settings pages. That's why Firefox offers an AI controls section within its General Settings panel. A single, easily located place where you can block current and future AI features and related pop-ups with the swipe of a toggle...

For the many people who sit in the middle of the AI usage spectrum, we made sure you can opt in and out of specific features in line with your preferences. Capabilities like AI translations, image alt text in Firefox PDF viewer, tab group suggestions, and key points in link previews can all be individually switched on and off, ensuring you can enjoy such offerings on a case by case basis as it suits your needs...

Smart Window is Firefox's most integrated AI experience, but that doesn't mean it compromises our commitment to choice, privacy, and transparency. Our newest window type, which we've been polishing and testing in beta, uses only the context you share with it to help you move work forward and across the finish line. When permitted by you, its built-in, AI-powered assistant can work directly with your open tabs and browsing history to connect the dots. This means comparing information, generating recommendations, summarizing pages, and planning projects without having to feed every crumb of context from your previous and current browsing activity each time you enter a new prompt.
And if you want to block Google's AI Overviews, there's over 100 extensions to choose from.

Firefox Touts Lower CPU Use for Large JPEGs, Faster PDF Viewer Startup (and AI Controls) More | Reply

Firefox Touts Lower CPU Use for Large JPEGs, Faster PDF Viewer Startup (and AI Controls)

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  • Feature Request (Score:5, Funny)

    by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @09:15AM (#66339614)
    Wow, they sure have been putting in work adding features, I almost hate to ask for one more. But it really needs it. Can we get a browser mode?

    • And just what do you suppose a browser that already browses and has a plugin system to customise your browsing do to improve the browser?

      • Re: Feature Request (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Iamthecheese ( 1264298 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @09:44AM (#66339690)
        Browser mode would remove all non browser features with a single setting

        • Which if they hadn't completely lost their way would be unnecessary because anything not related to browsing would be an addon.

        • Re: Feature Request (Score:5, Insightful)

          by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @11:32AM (#66339812)

          If features that don't impact you and you can ignore while browsing impact you it's not a dedicated mode you need, it's ADHD medication.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Teun ( 17872 )
            +1 funny and insightful all at once.

          • Features I'm not using which are built into the browser increase the attack surface if an attacker can enable them remotely, and I don't take for granted that this is impossible. Also Firefox has a habit of enabling things you disabled on an update. HTH, HAND

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Targon ( 17348 )

              Disable the feature in settings, and then you won't care. It's not like certain other browsers where you need to give an obscure command in the main bar to get to a feature to turn it on/off.

              • Features I'm not using which are built into the browser increase the attack surface if an attacker can enable them remotely, and I don't take for granted that this is impossible. Also Firefox has a habit of enabling things you disabled on an update. HTH, HAND

                Please do not reply without reading. It's a waste of everyone's time and attention.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Targon ( 17348 )

                  What feature can just be enabled remotely the way you are complaining about? The issue is "when features with vulnerabilities are enabled, then going to a web page that can compromise the vulnerability might be able to do things". You just assume that all features can somehow have a vulnerability that will let a remote web page change the browser settings, and that's a STRANGE thing to ASSUME is happening.

                  I've never seen Firefox updates that just decide to change settings that I had put in place the way

            • Features I'm not using which are built into the browser increase the attack surface if an attacker can enable them remotely, and I don't take for granted that this is impossible. Also Firefox has a habit of enabling things you disabled on an update. HTH, HAND

              Not every feature presents an attack surface, even more so "remotely". Also you're dealing entirely in theoreticals. My theoretical is I suspect you likely are complaining about Firefox while having piss poor security practices yourself. You have far bigger things to worry about.

        • Maybe they should rebrand to Netscape, then later, they can split the browser only mode into a new product. Lets call it Firefox.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
      Only if you pay for the VPN.

    • Wow, they sure have been putting in work adding features, I almost hate to ask for one more. But it really needs it. Can we get a browser mode?

      As soon as they're done refining the new built-in recipe keeper app and the upgraded calculator feature.

    • Wow, they sure have been putting in work adding features, I almost hate to ask for one more. But it really needs it. Can we get a browser mode?

      I felt that way about Emacs - as a *long* time user.
      Despite its logo [teuton.org], I still can't use it to wash my dishes. :-(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by shanen ( 462549 )

      Good opening joke.

      As usual I went down the list of features to see if there was one I would donate money to pay for. Usual string of nopes. (Not to be confused with the strange drink "Nope", which actually tastes much better than you'd think from the marketing.) But I suppose there are new bugs in there... Definitely wouldn't pay for those if such choices were offered. (Reminds me of Microsoft's emergency patch this month. Nothing to see here. Just some failures in the regression testing. Why do I want a re

    • And yet, Firefox for Android has no way to delete old bookmarks from bookmark search result list. It took them something like four years to add this feature, just recently, for history search results. Maybe Firefox will have the same for bookmark search in 2030.

    • All joking aside if....

      And if you want to block Google's AI Overviews, there's over 100 extensions to choose from.

      ...there are literally a hundred extensions to block this, maybe instead you might think of making ONE to add it. And just leaving it out.

      Ya think?

  • AI. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @09:16AM (#66339616)

    None, thanks.

    If I need a virtual friend, I can open a tab and navigate myself to copilot/deepseek/grok/gemini websites.

    Remember the backlash when you integrated Pocket?

    • You will get an AI toaster and you will like it!

      (Unless the damned bubble pops)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
        " e ybofy want toest" qote tesd dwarfs toeasrer

        • Re:'Cuz they'll stop making non-AI versions (Score:4, Funny)

          by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @12:36PM (#66339882)
          Memorable Quotes

          The Greeting: "Howdy-doodly-do, how's it going? I'm Talkie, Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion. Talkie's the name, toasting's the game. Anyone like any toast?"

          On Purpose: "I am a toaster. It is my raison d'être. I toast, therefore I am."

          On Justice: Kryten: "His memory circuits were quite badly damaged in the accident."Talkie Toaster: "That wasn't an accident! It was first-degree toastercide!"

          The Persistent Offer: Kryten: "Didn't you hear what I just said?"Talkie Toaster: "Yes, but I thought you might have changed your mind in the meantime."

          Parting Words: "Would you like a cheese and ham Breville?"

      • You will get an AI toaster and you will like it!

        (Unless the damned bubble pops)

        Getting the toast actually brown but not burnt, and getting both the different sides of a bagel right actually sounds like a real valid use for AI. I think it's a proper hard problem, as the failure of various toasters with browning sensors shows clearly. My only fear is hallucinations leading to house fires.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          If the toaster has good brownness and heat-bounce sensors, I'm not sure AI is needed: just turn up or down the heat cells where needed to keep it even. Statistical analysis may be needed to manage adjacent cells, but once the formulas are known via lab testing it should be predictable.

          • If you can do it and get it to work reliably in the long term in the nasty environment that is a toaster, I'll definitely contribute to your kickstarter to buy one. I'm sure the problem looks easy, but when your sensors all get smoked up in uncleaned and dirty toasters it turns out to be much nastier than you think.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      But they neither have access to your tabs nor they should have access to them.

    • Re:AI. (Score:5, Informative)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @10:32AM (#66339722) Homepage Journal

      Remember the backlash when you integrated Pocket?

      No, they don't. They don't actually listen to users.

    • Remember the backlash when you integrated Pocket?

      I remember it was a Shakespeare play. "full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing"

      • That's every complaint about Firefox, they signify nothing because they DGAF about users any more. They're just making the browser as a hobby or something.

        I still use it on desktop but on Mobile I had to stop. Slashdot causes it to crash multiple times per day. I switched to Brave, because it was the only browser other than Firefox with UO that successfully blocks Slashdot's worst ads. I faithfully kept Firefox updated and they didn't bother to repair this crash bug I reported repeatedly for years, so eithe

        • While I agree with your assessment of them, users aren't always the best arbiter of what they want in a product. Ask virtually all users, and they'll say stop changing anything. But while I can't speak for mobile, I have no idea why you think you need Brave / UO to stop ads on Slashdot. I'm only using Ublock lite and I've yet to see a Slashdot advert.

  • on my PC. I can't see it in Task Manager, but start getting "out of memory" errors after a couple of weeks and have to reboot. Restarting Firefox alone is insufficient to clear it. I suspect it has something to do with the graphics card rather than primary RAM, and could be co-caused with some other app.

  • What? (Score:5, Funny)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @09:56AM (#66339698)

    "Benchmarks from the bug report show up to 20Ã-- less memory used during very large image loading"

    20 what? Angstoms? Amperes? Or is that the Stargate symbol for Earth. Sorry I don't speak Ancient...

    And yes I am reading this summary in the latest version of FF

    • Ok that gave me a chuckle. This site has been around for what 30 years now and it's literally the only site I can think of that can't properly display text.

    • He found the seventh symbol!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      20%, but it's only when loading very large images that are scaled down for display. And when you zoom in on them, it has to decode them again.

      The PDF viewer isn't really a gain, it just pre-loads it like the bad old days of Internet Explore pre-loading itself on every boot.

      • 20%, but it's only when loading very large images that are scaled down for display.

        Once again showing the world you guess and bullshit with authority while not doing the bare minimum to educate yourself. Or do you think 4MB is 20% of 84MB?

        If you're going to "help" someone, be right for a change. The screwed up symbol was the multiplication symbol. It's 20x less, or 5% of the original memory use. Stop spreading your ignorance.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        Oh come on! Slashdot can handle a percent sign just fine. It's just some Slashdditor [xkcd.com] that can't enter the correct character.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rossdee ( 243626 )

        There are other percent symbols in TFS that seem to render OK

    • Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Arnonyrnous Covvard ( 7286638 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @11:21AM (#66339802)

      That's a multiplication x, unicode 0x00D7, encoded as a two-byte UTF-8 sequence (0xC3, 0x97), which reads as à (A-tilde) followed by an em-dash if interpreted as Windows-1252 characters.

      • followed by an em-dash

        I guess that proves that even this site is using AI to write their summaries these days.

        • No em-dashes for you! Slashdot turns the misinterpreted UTF-8 bytes into "&#195;--", i.e. the A-tilde is encoded as a numeric HTML entity and the em-dash turns into two minus characters.

          • You can have em and en dashes here if you use the HTML entities. Unfortunately the list of supported entities is small, so it cannot be used to fix this problem with a browser extension or user script

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rossdee ( 243626 )

        Thanks for the explanation of the characters. It still doesn't parse into English.

        • Thanks for the explanation of the characters. It still doesn't parse into English.

          What part of "Benchmarks from the bug report show up to 20x less memory used during very large image loading" isn't a perfectly functional English sentence to you?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Amperes?

      I just hate it when Firefox trips my breaker trying to sort out Slashdot character encoding.

    • Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Teun ( 17872 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @12:20PM (#66339866)
      It says 20x (times), for sane people that brings it down to 5% of the original.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The funny thing is: they took away the option from Firefox to set the page encoding. macOS Safari still has that option (funny because so many people complain about iOS Safari posts to this site), and if you change the page's text encoding to "Western (ISO Latin 1)" when posting content, you don't have these problems. It's probably because /. serves up pages with: Content-Type: [...] charset=utf-8

  • For all they keep doing, the one thing they can't seem to do is make a checkbox to stop being harassed about updates. Apparently there is no way to do to this. It's much too complicated for them to figure out.

    Perhaps they should put out a notice asking if anyone has the skills to create the checkbox and make it work.

    • Re:Still can't turn off update notice (Score:4, Informative)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @06:04PM (#66340252)

      >"For all they keep doing, the one thing they can't seem to do is make a checkbox to stop being harassed about updates."

      You literally post this on every article about Firefox. Aren't you tired yet? I have replied numerous times that they are *NEVER* going to do that. And then I pointed you to using policies, which will disable updates.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by theCoder ( 23772 )

        "For all they keep doing, the one thing they can't seem to do is make a checkbox to stop being harassed about updates."

        You literally post this on every article about Firefox. Aren't you tired yet? I have replied numerous times that they are *NEVER* going to do that. And then I pointed you to using policies, which will disable updates.

        So... what you're saying is that you are tired of seeing the same pointless message again and again over something that will never be changed? This has to be the most unintent

      • You literally post this on every article about Firefox. Aren't you tired yet? I have replied numerous times that they are *NEVER* going to do that. And then I pointed you to using policies, which will disable updates.

        Which is why I don't bother with surveys from company. If they're not going to listen to their customers, why bother doing the survey?

        Having to create a policy is not the same as a simple checkbox to disable something.

        One would think if customers keep complaining about something

        • >"Apparently Mozilla isn't interested in simple. Like so many other companies, the object is to make things as complicated, convoluted, and inconvenient as possible."

          Their objective is to make sure web browsing is secure and that you are aware of updates. Look, I agree with you that there should be an easy way to turn it off, even if just in about:config. But they made it clear when they took it away (many years ago) that they aren't going to bring that back, due to security. And I do have some sympat

    • I still have no idea what you're talking about. I've not been harassed by updates in any recent memory. They just apply on next launch silently. As Jobs would say, you aren't updating it right.

      • Some people don't want automatic updates, or automated checking. It also depends on which OS and which Firefox you have installed. For example, under Linux, Firefox from the distro will typically have zero notifications or updating because it is handled elegantly by the distro updates.

        • Some people don't want automatic updates, or automated checking.

          I know. We have a list of those people which gets shared around hacking forums.

    • Well, I tried.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rta ( 559125 )

      hmmm. the with they link in the comments there is reasonably descriptive about what defaults on and what's off.
      https://wiki.mozilla.org/Data_... [mozilla.org]

      idk what the chances of changing their policy is, but something like "category 2 should default to off because ..."
      Or "installation wizard should allow unchecking of... for cat 1 and 2" would be the way to phrase it but it wind be a political policy battle rather than a tech bug one it looks like.

    • The funny thing is, although it is a bogus "bug" report, they treated it like it was real.

      In any case, Mozilla only collects anonymized data by default. And you can happily, quickly, and easily turn that off and it will turn it off and it will remember that across updates.

      • That's true now that pocket is gone, perhaps.

        But pocket also destroyed all trust that they don't want your data

        • >"That's true now that pocket is gone, perhaps."

          I don't think pocket did anything to collect data unless you had it configured and were actually using it, though. I am not certain. I just disabled pocket in settings or about:config and paid it no mind.

  • Why is XL smaller? (Score:3)

    by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @12:08PM (#66339850)
    Doesn't XL usually mean "eXtra Large"? Who can cure my ignorance of this?

    • More JPEG for the same number of bytes?

    • Re:Why is XL smaller? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite ( 721679 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2026 @02:58PM (#66340076)

      Doesn't XL usually mean "eXtra Large"? Who can cure my ignorance of this?

      https://news.ycombinator.com/i... [ycombinator.com]

      jonsneyers on Feb 7, 2020 | root | parent | next [–]

      It may not be the best name, but it sure is better than the names of the projects it was based on: PIK and FUIF. At least if you speak Dutch. A "pik" is a penis and a "fuif" is a party, so the combination would be the "penis party" image codec. I prefer "JPEG XL".

      The etymology of the name "XL" is as follows: JPEG has called all its new standards since j2k something that starts with an X: XR, XT, XS (S for speed, since it is very fast and ultra-low-latency), and now XL. The L is supposed to mean Long term, since the goal is to make something that can replace the legacy JPEG and last as long as it did.

      https://sneyers.info/ [sneyers.info]

      • Ugh. So lame. Series+Long term, just happens to be an initialism that means something completely different? Those Piks didn't think it through well enough.

        Penis Party would have been so much more fun.

        Though I do wish I hadn't phrased it that way.

    • Anyone who knows how to Internet

    • Aside from the actual reason mentioned there's multiple "eXtra Large" aspects to this format.

      - It supports more bits per pixel than JPEG (which is very important since we've had a use case for high bitdepth images for decades now).
      - It supports larger image sizes than JPEG (JPEG is limited to 65535x65535 which is only 4.225 gigapixels if your image is square - trivially hit with panoramic photography. JPEGXL supports 1.12 exapixels which is very large).
      - It supports more channels than JPEG (4100, vs ... 3)
      -

      • Alright, so extra large images and documentation. I'll take it!

        Much better than the official reason, which I eventually looked up. X - series of specs, L - long term. Ick. Your reasons are so much better.

  • If we could be rid of those "you closed a tab" popups, Firefox might not be faster, but I could be more productive, not having to wait to act in the next tab.

    • No. Chrome explicitly dropped JPEG-XL. Both are now (re-)implementing it as it will be required for standards compliance of the internal PDF reader as JPEG-XL is going to become the standard compression format in future PDF versions.

  • What they really need to support is .jp2 discrete wavelet transform image files https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000 [wikipedia.org] .

    • Why? JPEG 2000 is as rare as hens teeth. It's not actively used by anything other than some extreme niches, has a complicated spec, and frankly was well and truly surpassed as an image format. Heck the only reason anyone is talking about JPEGXL is because PDF/A is planning to adopt it in an upcoming spec, and browsers have integrated PDF readers.

  • Although JPEG XL was launched in 2021, Safari is the only browser to support it yet.

    Correction: Pale Moon was first to release JPG-XL support in November of 2022 and has had it ever since.

    https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

  • Having to poke through an about: page and find the thing to toggle to turn off this specific AI feature but not that one, and knowing they'd change it on you a couple of releases later, never filled me with confidence.

    One switch in a readily discoverable location in the settings menu and it's all gone? Just the job, killed it now on the laptop and the mobile both.

  • So instead of only people who look at online PDFs having to wait for the module to load, now every Firefox user has to waste CPU and memory loading a module they may or may not use. Do people really think this is an improvement? How do I teleport to a saner parallel dimension?

    I skimmed the bug report to see if the preload was on browser startup or just earlier in the processes of loading a PDF. I couldn't tell, so maybe my comment above is wrong. But I did see this very ugly bit of code: !hash.toLowerC

  • That reminds me, I should find a new stand-alone PDF viewer for my workstation. The Firefox PDF viewer is orders of magnitude slower than any other PDF viewer I've ever used. If I have a 100-page document consisting of bitmap page scans and I skip to the end, it can take 30 seconds to render a page. It is just so damn slow.

    But yeah, improving initialization time is a newsworthy deal.

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