Chrome Switches Its Release Cycle for First Time in a Decade (droid-life.com) 26
Google Chrome releases will soon arrive more frequently than ever. From a report:In an announcement today, Google said it is updating the Chrome release schedule for the first time in over a decade. For a cool 10+ years now, Chrome stable releases have shipped every 6 weeks with new features, security fixes, etc. With improvements to testing and release processes, Google has realized that it can shorten the release cycle and will do so in Q3 of this year. Starting with Chrome 94, Google will move to a 4-week milestone release cycle. Freaked out at the possibility that Google might break features, remove things you like, or cause other issues with so many releases? Don't worry, Google is also introducing an Extended Stable release that will see milestone updates every 8 weeks. Now, it will still get updates every 2 weeks to address "important issues," but none of the new features or all security fixes that the 4-week milestones see will be included.
Sounds like (Score:2)
Google thinks their release version numbers simply weren't increasing fast enough.
I am sure they have a handle on it... (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft needs to slow down though. They break 365 and Azure pretty much daily. I am very surprised people still opt to use their services given how they barely keep to their SLAs; when they do, that is only because they do not count partially degraded functionality as an outage.
Re: Sounds like (Score:1)
Let me make a prediction:
They will stop counting versions and switch to rolling releases with Chrome 100. Similar to Windows 10, followed by Windows 10, Windows 10, and Windows 10. ;)
Chrome copying Firefox for a change (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Chrome copying Firefox for a change (Score:2)
Mozilla, tomorrow: Fuck it, we're going five blades^W^Wrolling release!
Moving to WTF 33% faster (Score:2)
Now, weird stuff happens every 6 weeks. In just a few months, though, you'll get to wonder what feature you liked (or needed) was removed every 4 weeks instead.
Re: Moving to WTF 33% faster (Score:1)
Rapid release is not even the core problem.
Maturity is. Stabilization.
If you still fixed bug of ever rapidly released version, for e.g. two years, everyone could pick how far behind they want to be in order to gain stability.
The problem is that with every fix,now you get new bugs again. So it can never mature. Perpetual beta. And soon perpetual alpha / rolling release.
Maybe I'm old fashioned... (Score:5, Insightful)
... but when I hear the term "Extended Stable Release", I think of a timespan more like five years. Certainly not 8 weeks.
Re: (Score:3)
WTF? Extended is 8 weeks?!! (Score:2)
Skip 1 update and you are the same as extended?
Big company with that many people on the project they should at least make "extended" be 6 months of no new features.
Re: WTF? Extended is 8 weeks?!! (Score:1)
You skipped the word "support" there, in "extended support".
Re: (Score:3)
I miss the old days when companies supported stable versions for years with fixes ONLY without new features. Any new features were in the major version releases.
So what's the test process? (Score:3)
I've been hit three times now with Chrome updates breaking working features and each time it was because the Chromium team didn't have a complete test set before doing the release - it takes between 6 and 8 weeks to get the working code reverted back in (I've been told by Google engineers that "Any changes have to be tested before we can release them" without a hint of irony).
It's all well and good to do releases on a faster schedule, but I want to know that they're not going to break things more frequently with no process to prevent it from happening in the future.
Re: (Score:3)
The test process is releasing it to the public, then fixing the bugs identified two version in the future (because the next two versions are already stabilizing and your bug fix isn't important enough)
Re: (Score:2)
That's why I keep Chrome running.
When it needs an update, the three dots turn into an exclamation mark or some such. When it REALLY needs an update, then it says "Update" instead. In the meantime you listen to the news to see if any major breaking changes happened.
No need to install every update on day 1. And since it updates so frequently, you're out of date anyways so delaying doesn't seem like a bad option anyways. Because just as soon as you update, tomorrow a new update happens, so you might as well do
may i ask what changes so frequently (Score:2)
that requires monthly updates?
makes me really curious how differently software is being treated now vs when it came on floppies, in books or cartridges
Re: may i ask what changes so frequently (Score:1)
Google adds kitchen sinks for the sole purpose of making others unable to keep up. It's not about the features. It's about monopolism. The natural end state of every for-profit or for-power organization.
Re: (Score:1)
Here's the change log[1] for the 90.0.4430.11 stable release. It covers changes for about one week.
[1] https://chromium.googlesource.... [googlesource.com]
We're in the endgame now. (Score:2)
Firefox is gonna get it. They will be unable to keep up, as idiot webdevs will blindly integrate Chrome-only features that nobody needs and nobody asked for and already existed, in a better form, in the OS below anyway ...
I guess we need a new project that comes from true open source roots, unlike Mozilla, and stays there, unlike KHTML/Webkit/Blink, and is more similar to the Linux kernel community than the latter.
It takes me longer (Score:2)
To watch every youtube video that I open from my subscription feed. The update button is 99% dark red, that's how I live.