Firefox 48 arrives with multi-process support

drops old OS X versions and Android Gingerbread

[bill]

http://venturebeat.com/2016/08/02/firefox-48-arrives-with-multi-process-support-drops-old-os-x-versions-and-android-gingerbread/ [venturebeat.com]

Firefox 48 arrives with multi-process support, drops old OS X versions and Android Gingerbread

Mozilla today launched Firefox 48 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The browser has gained multi-processor support (finally), enhanced protection against harmful downloads, and media improvements on Android. Support for old OS X versions and Android Gingerbread has been dropped.

Unfortunately Firefox is only enabling multi-process support, starting with 1 percent of users. To see if you have it type "about:support” into the URL bar and check to see if it says “1/1 (Enabled by default)” under the Multiprocess Windows.

[bhukkel]

Installations of Firefox that do not have add-ons installed or accessibility features enabled will have multi-process support enabled by default over the next six weeks.

[blog.mozilla.org...]

[engine]

Ahhh, thanks bhukkel, so it'll be coming in the next six weeks, even if it's not there now.

[bhukkel]

Only if you do not have any addons installed.

Further in the blog:

We’ll be testing multiprocess Firefox with add-ons in the release channel starting in Firefox 49, with the intent to make it the default for all installations of Firefox in early 2017.

[bill]

Good catch. I guess I won't be getting that multi-process for a while then on most of my installs. Even on machines with minimal profiles I at least run a couple of addons like NoScript and HTTPS Everywhere as a minimum.