E10s Update: October 24

Executive Summary

• As of October 18, across all release channel activity we recorded, e10s is activated for 25% of the total release population (across all releases). Although some users (about 80K) have opted out of using e10s, this number is very small compared to the total number of users on test (33.5M). See the dashboard, here. We are continuing to focus on resolving our two top issues to be sure we continue to trend with the majority of our users staying in the test cohort:
  • Top crash which has lead us to temporarily disable e10s for the Russian locale (5% of our e10s test population). Status: Patch review is ongoing and is a top priority for the networking team, we are aiming to have a fix to uplift to Firefox 51.
  • Slowness during tab switching. Investigation to identify a root cause is ongoing. The approach as been combination of many efforts including of elimination (e.g. patch to interrupt GC’s and force paint appears to have had no effect on spinner occurrences) and improving annotations in background hang reporting to make BHR data actionable. See notes for details.
• In order to better evaluate the impact e10s has on 6-week retention rates, we are going to conduct a funnelcake experiment. Stay tuned about details.

[AT RISK] Add-Ons + WebExtensions

• See full Add-Ons status, here
• Flagging the plan of record to enable MPC= true add-ons for Firefox 50 as 'at risk' as of today because there are two important uplifts that are in approval limbo. See bug 1309351 and bug 1309350.
• All the right people are in engaged and a decision will be made in the next couple of days.

[AT RISK] A11y + Windows 8 Touchscreen Support

• A11y and touchscreen support has landed in 51. We are still targeting 52 for release and we are at the cusp of being on track but I'm staying conservative.
• We are basically in convergence and are tracking the issues we would like to fix before rolling out, here.
• Touch events for APZ has landed in 52.
• NVDA is the first client we plan on achieving compliance with. We feel that if A11y can work with NVDA, we should be at about 90% of functionality with other, similar clients.

[ON TRACK] RTL Support

• bug 1277831 E10s support for RTL versions of Firefox on Windows and Mac is on track for Firefox 50. Softvision has just signed off on RTL support for e10s in their mid-aurora sign-offs.
• E10s support for RTL versions of Firefox on Linux has landed for 52.

[IN PROGRESS] E10s on Windows XP

• We are making a concerted effort to support E10s on Windows XP.
• Details can be found, here: bug 1296279

[ON TRACK] Automated tests

• We are at 90% Test coverage for all channels. We have touched base with all module owners. Not all of them have signed off specifically but we are calling it within acceptable range for shipping at this point.
• Working to get tests enabled for A11y is currently our focus.

[IN PROGRESS] Multi Process

Bi-weekly meetings have commenced for e10s-multi, see more info:

• E10s multi will be enabled in Firefox 52 Nightly but will not ride the trains.
• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis/Multiple_content_processes
• https://mzl.la/297iqN4

Release Schedule