Firefox 48 beta introduces Electrolysis multi-process support

Firefox users had to be very patient but at long last, Mozilla is finally getting ready to roll out Electrolysis, the long-awaited multi-process feature for the Firefox browser. Small-scale tests have been performed since December 2015 and the newly released Firefox 48 beta finally brings Electrolysis to the masses. If everything goes well, the stable build of Firefox 48 will be released on August 2nd.

Mozilla remains cautious with the roll-out. At first, it will divide the browser between a UI process and a content process. The next step is to enable per-tab processes, followed by sandboxing security and isolating the add-ons into their own processes. Firefox should be fully multi-process before the end of the year.

Even when Electrolysis is finally released into the wild, though, Mozilla will be exceedingly cautious with the ramp-up. At first, e10s will only be enabled for a small portion of Firefox's 500 million-odd users, just to make sure that everything is working as intended. Windows XP users, users with screen readers, right-to-left users, and people using add-ons will all be excluded from the initial e10s roll-out.

"Assuming all is well, we’ll turn the knobs so that the rest of the eligible Firefox users get updated to e10s over the following weeks," says Dotzler on his blog. "If we run into issues, we can slow the roll-out, pause it, or even disable e10s for those who got it. We have all the knobs."

Source: ARS Technica