Microsoft's Edge Browser Will Match Chrome's Upcoming Four-Week Release Cycle (theverge.com) 22
Microsoft is going to adjust its release cycles for Microsoft Edge to match the every-four-weeks release cadence for Chrome that Google announced last week. The Verge reports: "As contributors to the Chromium project, we look forward to the new 4-week major release cycle cadence that Google announced to help deliver that innovation to our customers even faster," Microsoft said in a blog post on Friday. The change will go into effect with Edge 94, which is targeted for a September release. Google has committed to making the switch with Chrome in Q3 with Chrome 94, but hasn't given a specific month like Microsoft has. Like Google, Microsoft is also offering enterprises the option of a longer release cycle enterprise customers. On that Extended Stable schedule, there will be a new release every eight weeks. However, a four-week cadence will be the default, Microsoft says. Brave, another Chromium-based browser, also said that it plans to match the new schedule.
I use Firefox (Score:1)
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It's leverage against any attempts at world domination by Chrome OS.
A Chromium-based runtime means that MS add the same first-class webapp experience within Windows-lite.
It's even cheekier than that (Score:2)
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Why, exactly, should I switch to this browser ?
I don't use it unless I have to (my default choice is Firefox), so I'm may be wrong, but I presume it's de-googlified. You could argue it's "Microsoftized" instead, but in what regards privacy, Google is much worse than Microsoft; if you can't or won't use Firefox, then I believe that between Edge and Chrome Edge is the lesser evil, while still comparable in features.
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Firefox is my primary browser, I use Brave for the very rare instances that Firefox doesn't work well for a particular task.
Brave is my choice of browser on my mobile devices, I just like it, particularly some of it's "single finger" gestures. Not sure if these exist in any other browsers, such as tap-slide to zoom in and out etc. Perhaps they have been added sometime since I started using Brave quite a while ago.
But it's because I'm familiar with Brave on my mobile device that I happened to install it as
Re: I use Firefox (Score:2)
Microsoft's four week release cycle (Score:1)
No doubt, that will match their monthly reinstall cycle for "Windows 10".
Well duh. (Score:3)
Edge is based on Chrome, so if they didn't update with the same cycle it would mean that Edge would be vulnerable to things that were fixed in Chrome. It would give attackers a repeated and predictable window of opportunity to identify exploitable bugs and then exploit them through Edge. Any browser that is based on Chrome is going to have to shadow their every release lest they expose their users to risk of compromise.
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Edge is based on Chrome, so if they didn't update with the same cycle it would mean that Edge would be vulnerable to things that were fixed in Chrome.
And that's how the Great Release Cycle War was started.... One day Microsoft updated Edge sooner to fix something; Google had to follow. This lead to shorter and shorter release cycles ending with Edge and Chrome doing nothing but continuous updates 24/7. "Restart to update" was burned into our collective memories and became the only thing our PCs ever do...
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/Oblg. 7 min. Abs [youtube.com] (There's Something About Mary)
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That's not entirely true. It's not a matter of Microsoft being open to security vulnerabilities in these hypothetical lapses in release mismatches. Instead, Microsoft would have to commit to backporting security fixes for product version cycles measured in months. It's not like Red Hat frankensteining their RHEL kernels which stay the same version but sometimes balloon to many times their original size with backported drivers and fixes.
It's a small distinction but it's one that would be made if Microsoft
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Edge is based on Chrome, so if they didn't update with the same cycle it would mean that Edge would be vulnerable to things that were fixed in Chrome. It would give attackers a repeated and predictable window of opportunity to identify exploitable bugs and then exploit them through Edge. Any browser that is based on Chrome is going to have to shadow their every release lest they expose their users to risk of compromise.
The big question is why aren't these things secure now? The endless update cycle with "If you don't, the L33t H@@xxorz are a-gonna get ya" that requires a constant stream of never ending updates is telling me that either the programmers aren't very good, or there is no point, or the whole paradigm is wrong.
Vulnerabilities are exposed only after someone's used them.
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The big question is why aren't these things secure now?
Simple: they keep adding more features. If they didn't add more features then it would be secure.
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The big question is why aren't these things secure now?
Simple: they keep adding more features. If they didn't add more features then it would be secure.
The bad guys are overrunning the features (it would seem) One feature addition, 4 new security holes. Of course, the bad guys discover back doors as well.
But what else (Score:2)
Other than security fixes (which maybe shouldn't have to wait for a release date) is there any point to updating browsers? What's improved in the past 7 years in browsers (except for FireFox's new pro=privacy features)?
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Other than security fixes (which maybe shouldn't have to wait for a release date) is there any point to updating browsers?
By continually adding new features, they create a moving target which makes it far more difficult for anyone to "catch up" to them.
To answer your question, is there a reason to add features? Yes. Is it a good reason? No.
We're faster! (Score:1)
Nyah, nyah. We can break things faster than you can. Nyah, nyah.