Multiprocess Firefox [e10s] (Partial Release: Fx48)

[ole!!!]

This is because firefox 45 and later cram the unloaded session back into the main process, which slows startup times tremendously compared to 44 and earlier when it was loaded into content processes.

Now here is something that nobody here has even pointed out: The firefox garbage collector doesn't run on all processes at the same time, so there goes another point for the limiting process to cores argument.

heres another that ive found. with firefox 24 ( i know its outdated..) with same amount of tabs open if i were to unload all tabs without having to exit and restart firefox, it'll remove most of the memory usage to that of a fresh started firefox with tabs unloaded, however with newer firefox it barely does that anymore.

[squall_leonhart]

This is because firefox 45 and later cram the unloaded session back into the main process, which slows startup times tremendously compared to 44 and earlier when it was loaded into content processes.

Now here is something that nobody here has even pointed out: The firefox garbage collector doesn't run on all processes at the same time, so there goes another point for the limiting process to cores argument.

heres another that ive found. with firefox 24 ( i know its outdated..) with same amount of tabs open if i were to unload all tabs without having to exit and restart firefox, it'll remove most of the memory usage to that of a fresh started firefox with tabs unloaded, however with newer firefox it barely does that anymore.

there was a delay added to retain certain aspects of session data so that tabs could be opened quickly if they were accidentally closed.

[Timvde]

Firefox with e10s enabled, compared to Firefox with e10s disabled is slower, and that's the fact.

You present it as a fact. My Nightly with 700-ish tabs and 20+ add-ons is close to unusable with e10s turned off. With e10s and 2 content processes, it's perfectly responsive. YMMV.

Both is wrong.
You have to leave room for the OS.
Example:
When two processes want to communicate with maximum speed you need an additional process to do the actual communication. Networks are usually a shared resource and your process does not actually access the network itself.
So when communicating with maximum speed there are three processes involved, two user processes and one OS process. If there are too much active user processes (or threads) the OS process can be blocked which in turn reduces the performance.

True, that's why I said

for performance reasons "dom.ipc.processCount" should not exceed number of how many threads your CPU support

so basing on your post, "dom.ipc.processCount" should be one number less than threads which your CPU support. It even should be two number less, so OS and even chrome will have theirs own threads.

No. It's like Grantius said: more processes won't use a lot more CPU. RAM is the limiting factor. It's also just factually false to think of the OS as one process, it's a collaboration of dozens of processes. Your CPU cores aren't limited to one process, they switch context hundreds of times each second during normal operation.

Now here is something that nobody here has even pointed out: The firefox garbage collector doesn't run on all processes at the same time, so there goes another point for the limiting process to cores argument.

That's also a trade-off. If you have more processes, this means less websites in each process, and a smaller heap to collect. This makes GC more efficient. It will probably produce a (little) higher total CPU usage indeed, but it might actually improve responsiveness.

[Martin84a]

Hi. Does anyone know why FF 49 hasn't enabled e10 in my browser? I have only ublock origin, private tabs and lastpass installed, and in versions that support e10. I have tried the google suggestions of adding certain settings to about:config, but still nothing :o What did you guys do?

[S3ndG]

Hi ! Have you tried to force e10s? Read this :
Force Enable
If you've tried enabling e10s following the instruction above, but your about:support indicates that e10s is disabled (e.g., accessibility, add-ons can trigger this), you can force e10s on for testing purposes. Within about:config create a new boolean pref named browser.tabs.remote.force-enable and set it to true. This is not encouraged, use it at your own risk!

[trustjmh]

Hi. Does anyone know why FF 49 hasn't enabled e10 in my browser? I have only ublock origin, private tabs and lastpass installed, and in versions that support e10. I have tried the google suggestions of adding certain settings to about:config, but still nothing :o What did you guys do?

You have incompatible add-ons. 49 only allows a limited number of add-ons to run with e10 by default.
When Firefox 50 is released (on 15th) most add-ons that are e10s compatible will have Firefox defaulting to multiprocess.
Running this add-on may be the best way to see which report as being compatible.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... y-reporter

[LewS]

Does anyone know when e10s can no longer be turned off;
i.e., when it is on by default, probably in R52 next year, will
we be able to turn it off?

[Omega X]

Does anyone know when e10s can no longer be turned off;
i.e., when it is on by default, probably in R52 next year, will
we be able to turn it off?

E10s becomes permanent when 100% of the user base can run it. Right now its gated by incompatible addons and the state of the new addon API. The schedule says Fx53, but that could be pushed back at any time.

[Enig123]

When loading this ballotpedia.org, and switch back to other tabs, Firefox cannot turned into the already rendered page anymore, as if all pages are loaded as that site, which can be really annoying.

You guys can access this url for yourself: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016 ... opositions

BTW, the only addons I am using is uBO the latest release version, which according to the compatibility site, is compatible with e10s.

Edit: Any idea what kind of bug it is, or is it already known? Any solutions on the way?

[Grantius]

When loading this ballotpedia.org, and switch back to other tabs, Firefox cannot turned into the already rendered page anymore, as if all pages are loaded as that site, which can be really annoying.

You guys can access this url for yourself: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016 ... opositions

BTW, the only addons I am using is uBO the latest release version, which according to the compatibility site, is compatible with e10s.

Edit: Any idea what kind of bug it is, or is it already known? Any solutions on the way?

Hmmm, it seems to work fine for me. I can switch tabs no problem and each tab is what it was before loading this page.

[Enig123]

What it will be like if you switch between the tab of the above link and others back and forth while it is still loading?

I just tested it with uBO disabled and it's the same as before.

Edit: Oh, it looks like 52 alpha has no such issues.

[Enig123]

I have used 52 alpha for some days, and thought the handling bug of ballotpedia.org has been addressed.

It turns out to be not the case. When I am trying to open several ballotpedia.org pages at the same time, the hangs are still there.

Can someone just try and see if you can repeat the phenomenon?

[GHM113]

I have used 52 alpha for some days, and thought the handling bug of ballotpedia.org has been addressed.

It turns out to be not the case. When I am trying to open several ballotpedia.org pages at the same time, the hangs are still there.

Can someone just try and see if you can repeat the phenomenon?

I've just tried to open 10 ballotpedia.org pages in the background and didn't notice any hangs or spinners when switching between already loaded tabs.

[Enig123]

Openning these pages in the background would not trigger the spinners, switching between them and already rendered other page will.

I would admit, 52 alpha has been greatly improved with this issue, compared to the 49 series release version for now.

[GHM113]

Openning these pages in the background would not trigger the spinners, switching between them and already rendered other page will.

I still can't reproduce this behavior, switching between tabs is instant, contents of the tabs are rendered without any delays.