Google ethos speeds up Chrome release cycle
What's better: short trains that leave frequently or longer trains that leave less often?
Given Google programmers' philosophy of releasing products early then iterating often, it's no surprise that higher frequency is their preference: thus the announcement Thursday that Google will speed up the release cycle of its Chrome browser.
New stable versions of Chrome today arrive about every three months, but Google wants to double that pace, said Chrome Program Manager Anthony LaForge.
"Under the old model, when we faced a deadline with an incomplete feature, we had three options, all undesirable: (1) Engineers had to rush or work overtime to complete the feature by the deadline, (2) We delayed the release to complete that feature (which affected other unrelated features), or (3) The feature was disabled and had to wait approximately 3 months for the next release. With the new schedule, if a given feature is not complete, it will simply ride on the the next release train when it's ready," he said in the blog.
That could mean, for example that some features such as print preview that Google punted from Chrome 6 to Chrome 7 could arrive in mainstream Chrome users' hands earlier.
Browser rival Mozilla is working on the same idea of more frequent releases. As with Chrome, though, it doesn't mean the pace of advancement doubles, only that new features arrive in smaller doses but more often.
For decades, distribution was a difficult matter for the software industry. AT&T and UC Berkeley Unix programmers mailed tapes to one another. And when personal computers caught on, floppy disks and later CDs also relied on the postal service. Software that dates from this era--Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Civilization--tends toward major updates released years apart.
Google, of course, grew up in the Internet era, when the network could be used to send software. Google likes its software to be updated silently, behind the scenes, and with no user intervention--in short, the way Google updates its search engine algorithm.
Of course, there's still a lot of overhead in releasing software, even as an online update. New versions must be debugged, tested, packaged up, and sent over the wire. It's often easier to handle one bigger train than two small ones. But Google believes its new release process, to be implemented in coming months, will also make project management easier in many ways.
It remains to be seen how amenable Google's philosophy will be to IT organizations accustomed to testing software and controlling its release. Certainly many employees rely constantly on Google's ever-changing search engine, which corporate IT doesn't get to test. But software that runs on a company's computers brings security risks and compatibility challenges not present when visiting a Web site.
Realistically, a release cycle of six weeks rather than three months won't make too much difference to corporate IT geared for cycles many times that duration, so Google's move to turn the crank faster probably won't change things much.
A broader issue also is involved: how fast can people keep up? User interface changes can leave people clicking around in menus and dialog boxes for commands they once knew how to find.
As Chrome spreads beyond the early-adopter crowd, change gets harder. But that might not sound as much at odds with a faster release cycle as one might think. Many Chrome changes are under the hood, such as improvements to JavaScript processing speed, and many others enable Web programmers to exercise new options.
In other words, Chrome is a window on the Web, and it will often be up to Web site owners to worry about making sure people don't suffer future shock.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank, or contact him through Google Buzz. 
Chrome updates in the background automatically, so you always have the newest, and it doesn't matter what version. It's just Chrome. If I weren't a techie and I didn't read stuff like this, I'm sure I'd have no idea what version Chrome I'm using.
However, at work I still have IE 6 and I want to cry every day because my company apparently lives in a software stone age. *cough*Office2000*cough
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Achmed: "Silence! I kill you"
As a developer as much as innovation is loved, the mature releases would be greatly beneficial for testing, development etc..
If we were to test and certify every version of Chrome, we would be doing little else.
This will increase the frequency of" side effect" bugs when you add something, you break something.
Why not work a little harder on big things (e.g print system support) and release LESS often.
- by imazune July 25, 2010 2:44 PM PDT
- @fudbuster77
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(28 Comments)People like you are the only reason Apple has survived. I remember back in the 90s when Apple's death was imminent and MSFT released Win98 and then Me. Now that Apple's up again Microsoft will best them again then MSFT will stop. But this time Apple will die and Google will take it's place.