Process vs Thread

A process is a program that is running, with its own separate memory, files and resources given by the operating system. Opening a browser or a text editor starts a process, and one process cannot directly read another's memory.

A thread is the smallest unit of work the CPU schedules, and it runs inside a process. One process can have many threads that share its memory, which makes them lighter and faster to create and switch between than processes. Multithreading lets a program do several things at once, such as downloading a file while keeping its window responsive, but threads sharing memory must be synchronised carefully.