9 ms·

Finally some movement on this! It really feels like an inferior experience in 2015 when your browser freezes from an unresponsive javascript in another tab.

by zapt02 11y ago

mbrubeck 11y ago
Currently, Firefox Nightly uses one process for the browser UI and a separate process for web content. However, one web content process is shared by all tabs. So slow JavaScript in one tab won't block the browser UI, but it will block web content in other tabs. You can change this by increasing the "dom.ipc.processCount" preference in about:config, but there are still some known bugs with multiple content processes in desktop Firefox. There will be more work on multiple content processes in the future.
nly 11y ago
Chromium circa 2008?
- Excavator 11y ago
  A browser being built from the ground up around one process per tab has an easier time implementing said feature than one with years of history? Who would've thought‽
  - wanderr 11y ago
    The fact that they spent years arguing against its necessity rather than working on it certainly didn't help.
    - frik 11y ago
      There is a lot of old cruft in its web engine "gecko" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(software) , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPCOM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPCOM). Many addons are XUL based and have had problems with the multi process mode. In 1-2 years hopefully Servo is ready combined with a simple HTML based UI to do what Firefox/Firebird/Phoenix did with Mozilla Suite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Firefox#Naming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Firefox#Naming
    - glass- 11y ago
      And yet if you read the comments in this thread there are still people arguing against its necessity.
- ethana 11y ago
  Or IE7 circa 2006. IE7 separated its UI and browser content in different processes. IE8+ group several tabs into one process when passing a threshold. This is much better for battery life compare to Chrome process-per-tab.
  - timothya 11y ago
    Chrome also groups multiple tabs on single process, based on a number of factors: https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/process-models https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/process...
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - frik 11y ago
    IE7 or IE8 introduced multi-process sandbox in Vista (not on XP). Afterwards, Google did the same with their first Chrome release. In both IE 8-11 and Chrome 1+ there are several tabs per sub-process. Chrome comes even with its own "Taskmanager" where you can see which tab sits in which process and how many resources it takes. You can find the Taskmanager in the Chrome's "Tools" sub-menu.
- forrestthewoods 11y ago
  Yes. Exactly like that. Firefox is damn near a full decade behind the curve.
  - _wmd 11y ago
    Multiprocess isn't some magical panacea, its use is essentially to contain buggy code which shouldn't exist in the first place (this is true for its use as introducing extra security context for page content as well as its improvements to robustness against hangs). In both instances, a safer implementation language, or moving rendering and JS interpretation off the UI thread could be said to be far more elegant solutions. Mozilla is about a decade ahead of the curve here, with Rust and Servo providing both.
    - yborg 11y ago
      This. I am a SW tester and regularly use all the major browsers. I frankly do not see any lack in the current non-multiprocess FF in terms of the majority of browsing scenarios. If you really want the browser to be the operating system multi-processing is important, but for those not as interested in Google's agenda it isn't nearly as pertinent.
      - StavrosK 11y ago
        Really? I switched to FF from Chrome and it's my #1 gripe. I can't load a YouTube video without the entire browser freezing, it's ridiculous.
        cpeterso 11y ago
        Are the freezing YouTube videos using Flash or HTML5 video? What OS are you on?
        StavrosK 11y ago
        I'm on Linux. I have HTML5 videos enabled, so I think it's mostly that, but I can check later if you want.
mitchi 11y ago
Chrome crashes and freezes all the time too.
- witty_username 11y ago
  Not for me, I have barely had any crashes or freezes with Chrom(ium).
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

Finally some movement on this! It really feels like an inferior experience in 2015 when your browser freezes from an unresponsive javascript in another tab.

by zapt02 11y ago

Finally some movement on this! It really feels like an inferior experience in 2015 when your browser freezes from an unresponsive javascript in another tab.

mbrubeck 11y ago

Currently, Firefox Nightly uses one process for the browser UI and a separate process for web content. However, one web content process is shared by all tabs. So slow JavaScript in one tab won't block the browser UI, but it will block web content in other tabs. You can change this by increasing the "dom.ipc.processCount" preference in about:config, but there are still some known bugs with multiple content processes in desktop Firefox. There will be more work on multiple content processes in the future.

nly 11y ago

Chromium circa 2008?

Excavator 11y ago
A browser being built from the ground up around one process per tab has an easier time implementing said feature than one with years of history? Who would've thought‽
- wanderr 11y ago
  The fact that they spent years arguing against its necessity rather than working on it certainly didn't help.
  - frik 11y ago
    There is a lot of old cruft in its web engine "gecko" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(software) , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPCOM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPCOM). Many addons are XUL based and have had problems with the multi process mode. In 1-2 years hopefully Servo is ready combined with a simple HTML based UI to do what Firefox/Firebird/Phoenix did with Mozilla Suite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Firefox#Naming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Firefox#Naming
  - glass- 11y ago
    And yet if you read the comments in this thread there are still people arguing against its necessity.
ethana 11y ago
Or IE7 circa 2006. IE7 separated its UI and browser content in different processes. IE8+ group several tabs into one process when passing a threshold. This is much better for battery life compare to Chrome process-per-tab.
- timothya 11y ago
  Chrome also groups multiple tabs on single process, based on a number of factors: https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/process-models https://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/process...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- frik 11y ago
  IE7 or IE8 introduced multi-process sandbox in Vista (not on XP). Afterwards, Google did the same with their first Chrome release. In both IE 8-11 and Chrome 1+ there are several tabs per sub-process. Chrome comes even with its own "Taskmanager" where you can see which tab sits in which process and how many resources it takes. You can find the Taskmanager in the Chrome's "Tools" sub-menu.
forrestthewoods 11y ago
Yes. Exactly like that. Firefox is damn near a full decade behind the curve.
- _wmd 11y ago
  Multiprocess isn't some magical panacea, its use is essentially to contain buggy code which shouldn't exist in the first place (this is true for its use as introducing extra security context for page content as well as its improvements to robustness against hangs). In both instances, a safer implementation language, or moving rendering and JS interpretation off the UI thread could be said to be far more elegant solutions. Mozilla is about a decade ahead of the curve here, with Rust and Servo providing both.
  - yborg 11y ago
    This. I am a SW tester and regularly use all the major browsers. I frankly do not see any lack in the current non-multiprocess FF in terms of the majority of browsing scenarios. If you really want the browser to be the operating system multi-processing is important, but for those not as interested in Google's agenda it isn't nearly as pertinent.
    - StavrosK 11y ago
      Really? I switched to FF from Chrome and it's my #1 gripe. I can't load a YouTube video without the entire browser freezing, it's ridiculous.
      - cpeterso 11y ago
        Are the freezing YouTube videos using Flash or HTML5 video? What OS are you on?
        StavrosK 11y ago
        I'm on Linux. I have HTML5 videos enabled, so I think it's mostly that, but I can check later if you want.

mitchi 11y ago

Chrome crashes and freezes all the time too.

witty_username 11y ago
Not for me, I have barely had any crashes or freezes with Chrom(ium).
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]