So, I was looking at my CPU utilization one day when I noticed it was using over 3% even though I really wasn't doing anything with my system. Yes, 3% is not much, but it is a lot when nothing is happening. Usually I'm somewhere around 1.5%, and this is with 50+ tabs open, multiple terminal sessions, and several programs open, so I was confused as to why this was higher than normal.
When I looked into this further, it was due to pipewire in relation to Firefox. While Firefox doesn't win any awards for battery life (and since being energy-wise is on page 3 of the Ideas list at https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/idb-p/ideas/tab/most-kudoed/page/3, it might never get better), seeing this excessive interaction of pipewire alongside it was confusing. I wasn't playing any music, nor watching any videos, so what was going on? The truth is, nothing was going on, but pipewire was happily using resources for no reason. Upon closer inspection, Firefox was muted for some reason and once I unmuted it, the pipewire process stopped and I was back to ~1.5%.
If you're a mobile road warrior, hope this help you wage war on the road a little longer!
Cheers!
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