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Multiprocess Firefox

developer.mozilla.org

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Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#81

Post by gpvos »

rcthompson wrote: post #75
sebcat wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me I've never understood this. Isn't that what bookmarks are for?

Bookmarks, tabs, pinned tabs, etc. all sit at different places on the same continuous spectrum of UIs for saving web pages for later. Once you implement unloading of background tabs (which you can in FF via add-ons), they can start to look a lot like bookmarks.

You don't need to use an add-on (anymore?) for keeping them unloaded, although you do need one to get a more manageable user interface. When you have more than about 1000 tabs, startup end closedown get rather slow though.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#82

Post by hil »

sebcat wrote: post #73
pllbnk wrote: post #71

From the experience I've had with Chrome, I would say that process per tab is overhead. Sure, there are some benefits from having a few processes that are managing different parts of the system, but not hundreds of processes just for browsing. The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me, sometimes there are even hundreds of them. Currently Firefox works great and although there are some…

> The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me I've never understood this. Isn't that what bookmarks are for?

It's called tab hoarding and it's a mental disorder, I have it too.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#83

Post by imron »

sebcat wrote: post #73
pllbnk wrote: post #71

From the experience I've had with Chrome, I would say that process per tab is overhead. Sure, there are some benefits from having a few processes that are managing different parts of the system, but not hundreds of processes just for browsing. The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me, sometimes there are even hundreds of them. Currently Firefox works great and although there are some…

> The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me I've never understood this. Isn't that what bookmarks are for?

It's like a super convenient temporary bookmark, without any of the hassle of bookmark management.

I currently have 80 tabs open, and process-per-tab is not something I'm looking forward to.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#85

Post by Alphasite_ »

superdude wrote: post #56
suprgeek wrote: post #27

Please please test battery life impact while implementing the Multi-process stuff. I had to move away from Chrome just on the battery life issue. I suspect (but cannot conclusively prove) that the multi-process crap that Chrome has just drains your battery much faster. And yes I am perfectly aware of the supposed fix in Chrome for the battery killing bug.

Safari is multi-process and it has the best battery life.

It is a bit of a memory hog as well, but yes, it's battery life is just fantastic.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#86

Post by jldugger »

sebcat wrote: post #73
pllbnk wrote: post #71

From the experience I've had with Chrome, I would say that process per tab is overhead. Sure, there are some benefits from having a few processes that are managing different parts of the system, but not hundreds of processes just for browsing. The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me, sometimes there are even hundreds of them. Currently Firefox works great and although there are some…

> The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me I've never understood this. Isn't that what bookmarks are for?

I have 9 workspaces, two screens each, in a 3x3 grid. Most are browser - terminal pairs. 4 tabs per workspace is fairly common. They're grouped with working checkouts by task. I'm not quite at 50, but getting there. For example:

1. Support Ticket workspace -- one for RT, more tabs for related research

2. internal wiki workspace -- one for the wiki, another for the wiki's github repo, another for a local build of the wiki

3. email / meetings -- one window for calendar+tasks, one for email, with and 1-2 extra tabs for documents or links sent my way

4. Site Reliability -- one for nagios alerts, one for site testing, one for munin, and one for github PRs

5. management -- weekly management meeting agenda google doc, a key report or two, and maybe a slides for a presentation I've been asked to give or review

Edit: IMO, I'm perfectly happy to give up Memory if it means one tab crashing doesn't kill the entire process. Even at 100MB per tab, 5GB is like under 50 bucks.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#87

Post by gpvos »

icebraining wrote: post #50
viraptor wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just remember that anecdote != data and all that. My ff gets restarted in two cases - ff or kernel gets security patch. That sometimes means a month of no restarts. (With maybe 30+ tabs in different groups open)

Same here. I keep sessions open for months at a time, with heavy tab churning (some days I have 30 open, then I close 10, open 20 more, etc).

FF on Windows (work) is rock solid for me, while on Mac (home) it becomes unusable (too slow) after a few days, and also is a memory hog. I do keep 100s of tabs open on both, although most of those are usually not loaded.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#88

Post by PetitPrince »

gpvos wrote: post #81
rcthompson wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bookmarks, tabs, pinned tabs, etc. all sit at different places on the same continuous spectrum of UIs for saving web pages for later. Once you implement unloading of background tabs (which you can in FF via add-ons), they can start to look a lot like bookmarks.

You don't need to use an add-on (anymore?) for keeping them unloaded, although you do need one to get a more manageable user interface. When you have more than about 1000 tabs, startup end closedown get rather slow though.

> although you do need one to get a more manageable user interface I know this get mentioned every time there's a discussion on Firefox UI and extension, but Tree Style Tabs [ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta... ] is one excellent example of such extension.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#89

Post by scottjad »

sebcat wrote: post #73
pllbnk wrote: post #71

From the experience I've had with Chrome, I would say that process per tab is overhead. Sure, there are some benefits from having a few processes that are managing different parts of the system, but not hundreds of processes just for browsing. The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me, sometimes there are even hundreds of them. Currently Firefox works great and although there are some…

> The way I use Firefox is that having 50 or more tabs open is normal for me I've never understood this. Isn't that what bookmarks are for?

I currently have 2014 tabs in my session (almost all unloaded, using around 2GB of ram that I wouldn't use otherwise). I had 1600 tabs a few days ago. They are links I clicked on in other apps or browsed to over the past few months.

When I get a chance to plow through a few dozen/hundred of these tabs I can read/view them and close them very quickly. Notice all the UI stuff I don't have to do: I never had to perform the the actions of saving a bookmark, opening a list of bookmarks, opening a specific bookmark, or deleting a bookmark.

I clicked a link once upon a time, and I will close the tab some time in the future.

When I switch to and close ten tabs, all I have to do from a UI perspective is type q ten times.

Re: Multiprocess Firefox

#90

Post by haddr »

gpvos wrote: post #81
rcthompson wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bookmarks, tabs, pinned tabs, etc. all sit at different places on the same continuous spectrum of UIs for saving web pages for later. Once you implement unloading of background tabs (which you can in FF via add-ons), they can start to look a lot like bookmarks.

You don't need to use an add-on (anymore?) for keeping them unloaded, although you do need one to get a more manageable user interface. When you have more than about 1000 tabs, startup end closedown get rather slow though.

For Chrome, there is this great extension called "Tabs Outliner". Gets work done really great! Pity that after so much time there is no FF equivalent...
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