Multi-process Firefox is fast like other browsers, but won’t suck up memory and slow down your computer as Chrome will sometimes do.

Today Mozilla is releasing a new version of Firefox that runs using a multi-process architecture, for the first time using several separate processes for your web page content (your tabs).

Now, you might know that some other browsers have done this sort of thing for a while. But even if you think you know everything about multi-process browsers, or if you don’t have the first clue, read on.

In this post I’ll explain what it means for Firefox to run with a multi-process architecture. I’ll also explore how and why Firefox’s approach to running with multiple processes is a bit different from — and often better than — other browsers’.

As I considered how to explain something pretty technical, I thought about a story I frequently read to my daughter Sara: Goldilocks and the Three Bears.