🧠 Processes vs Threads in Linux – What’s the Deal?

You’ve probably heard the terms process and thread thrown around in tech convos. They sound similar but are actually quite different under the hood—especially in Linux. Let's break it down!

🔍 What’s a Process?

Think of a process as a full-blown app running on your system—like a browser or music player. It has its own memory, open files, environment, and execution path.

💾 Memory? All its own.

🗂️ Files? Managed separately.

🚦 Signals? Independent.

🧵 And a Thread?

A thread is like a mini-process living inside a bigger one. Multiple threads can live in a process and share resources—kind of like roommates sharing a flat.

In Linux, threads are created using the clone() system call with flags like CLONE_VM, CLONE_FS, etc., which tell the kernel: “Hey, let this thread share stuff with its siblings.”

🤝 Key Differences

🧠 Why Care?

Understanding the difference helps you write better, faster, safer code. Threads are lighter and faster to create, but with great power comes great responsibility—sharing memory means you must manage it carefully.

• Threads = faster, lighter, but riskier.

• Processes = safer, but heavier.

TL;DR

Processes are like separate apps.

Threads are like multitaskers inside an app.

In Linux, threads are implemented using a smarter version of process creation.

Want a deep dive into how clone() makes it all happen? Drop a comment and I’ll break it down in the next post! 🚀