Calling them processes is even more misleading. A process has a specific meaning on most operating systems. Erlang "processes" should, if anything, be referred to as "green-processes" or "lightweight processes", as to do otherwise leads to dangerous comparisons, such as implying that a server running an Erlang server has 2 million processes running, when in reality it has 1 (or several) Erlang processes, running a VM that is in turn running 2 million Erlang "green-processes". And while "threads" is incorrect, Erlang processes are closer to green threads then to any other concept.
The Erlang virtual machine has what might be called "green processes" – they are like operating system processes (they do not share state like threads do) but are implemented within the Erlang Run Time System (erts). These are sometimes referred to as "green threads", but have significant differences from standard green threads.
