In IE8 and Chrome, Processes Are the New Threads

SenFo writes "To many of the people who downloaded Google Chrome last week, it was a surprise to observe that each opened tab runs in a separate process rather than a separate thread. Scott Hanselman, Lead Program Manager at Microsoft, discusses some of the benefits of running in separate processes as opposed to separate threads. A quote: 'Ah! But they're slow! They're slow to start up, and they are slow to communicate between, right? Well, kind of, not really anymore.'"

Have to watch what I say

[bigtallmofo]

I may be inadvertently responsible for Internet Explorer 8's use of separate processes for each tab. Months ago, when they invited me to install the beta of their latest web browser, I told them to do something that sounds very similar to "Go fork yourself!"

I think they took that as architectural advice.

Re:Have to watch what I say

[The Ancients]

forkin hell!

Oblig

[plopez]

"The 70's called...." I can't bring myself to say the rest....

Re:Have to watch what I say

[gEvil (beta)]

forkin hell!

And here I was hoping I'd see a Spoonerism somewhere.

Re:Oblig

[Anonymous Coward]

1990 called, they'd like their joke back.

Re:So...

[InlawBiker]

Yeah, exactly. Why wait for programmers to come up with solid multi-thread code? $150 now gets you a dual-core CPU and 4gb or RAM. Just hope your browser doesn't crash while you're there....

Um, duh

[coryking]

Every bandwagoner, technical lightweight is now stomping their feet that Firefox needs to get on this yesterday

Of course they want it yesterday... that is why they aren't as smart as you and I. They think you can go back in time.

Smart people like those reading this comment want it *today* or perhaps tomorrow morning. The honor roll students understand that today or even tomorrow might not be possible and instead are willing to wait a few days. The Mensa crowd and those working on Duke Nukem Forever or Perl6 are willing to wait until the code is the most architecturally perfect code ever written.

My point, for those reading still in the "I want it yesterday" crowd, is that you are asking for the impossible. Please be productive and demand the Firefox developers complete all code related to using a process per tab by the end of the day. Understand that until such time as those in the Duke Nukem Forever/Perl6/Mensa crowd invent the time machine, demands for "I want it yesterday" are simply unrealistic.

Re:Processes

[Firehed]

javascript application

Well there's your problem...

Re:Processes

[piquadratCH]

Not to rain on your parade, but exactly how are you intending to use browsers in cluster computing?

Didn't you get the memo? The browser is the new operating system! So, naturally, it belongs on a cluster.

Re:Have to watch what I say

[Wyzardking]

Tomorrow's headline: Anonymous Coward deported to Sweden. Claims he's not from there.

Re:Have to watch what I say

[dwywit]

What, something like hawking fell ?

Re:Deja vu

[aspx]

You just defended Microsoft on Slashdot and you got modded +5 Insightful. I will follow you anywhere, O great one!

Re:Have to watch what I say

[tacocat]

I want a shirt that says, "Protect your resources: Fork Off and Die"

Re:Processes

[apoc.famine]

It's not reinventing the wheel if you don't know what the wheel is yet.

Wait...did you expect someone replying to you on slashdot to know what the hell they were talking about?


Well there's your problem...

Re:Have to watch what I say

[CrazedSanity]

It just goes to show, if ya can't fork it, spoon^H^H^H^H^Hthread it!