
Some of this should get better because Firefox will better handle a process called garbage collection in which areas of memory that had previously been used are reclaimed for use again. Does the browser mysteriously pause from time to time? When you resize the window does it feel smooth? How long does it take for a mouse click to be recognized? What we're really talking about with multi-process performance is responsiveness: The expectation is a snappier browser, Blizzard said: But he did say work is back on the front burner.Ī key improvement from the work will be separating the user-interface process from the part of Firefox that handles the contents of browser tabs.

Rather than waiting more than a year for a major upgrade, new ideas can arrive as soon as they've made it through the testing levels of nightly builds, the rough Aurora version, and the more polished beta.Ĭhris Blizzard, Mozilla's director of Web platform, didn't detail a schedule for new Electrolysis features in a blog post today about the technology. One goal of the faster cycle is to bring new features to market sooner. Mozilla has responded with the rapid-release development cycle that produces a new Firefox every six weeks. Firefox, once the obvious alternative to pokey Internet Explorer, now must reckon with Chrome's fast rise, Safari leading the mobile-browsing charge, and IE's restored focus. It took a little while, but there's no doubt now that the Firefox team has woken up to the newly competitive browser market.
Aurora 3d animation maker cnet Patch#
Mozilla already added one Electrolysis element to Firefox 3.6-the separation of plug-ins to their own patch of memory-but now programmers are spinning up the project again to tackle more. But the most far-reaching change probably is a project called Electrolysis that splits Firefox into multiple somewhat-independent processes.Įlectrolysis holds the potential to improve responsiveness, smooth graphics performance, take better advantage of multicore processors, and tighten security.
Aurora 3d animation maker cnet windows#
So what's in store now that we can expect a new version every six weeks?Ī lot, including 64-bit support on Windows and a plan to reduce the open-source browser's memory usage.


Mozilla has begun turning the Firefox crank faster with a rapid-release development cycle.
