Update 2012-02-02: Servo: a vision for the future of Firefox
One of Chrome’s greatest features is that it has one process per tab. In May 2009, Mozilla announced the Electrolysis project whose goal is to give Firefox the same feature. Mozilla now says that they are putting the project on hold, because it was too ambitious.
On Nov. 4, 2011, we held a public call to evaluate options for improving Firefox responsiveness including the multi-process Firefox initiative (code name Electrolysis, also known as e10s). The outcome of this discussion was a decision to put the Electrolysis initiative on hold for the foreseeable future and focus on other initiatives aimed at improving responsiveness in the browser.I do understand the reasons: Electrolysis was a huge undertaking and Mozilla being a small company, it makes more short-term sense to spend its resources on smaller initiatives that improve Firefox responsiveness. It is an understandable and reasonable decision, yet I can’t help but be disappointed.