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Microsoft's Lack of Nightly Builds For IE
Ricky writes "Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds of Internet Explorer — or at least something more frequent than months-to-years. Ars talks with Microsoft's general manager for IE, who says the IE9 development cycle will look much the same as previous versions. Not a great idea."
Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds of Internet Explorer
Um, because they never have and never will?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
What does MS offer nightly builds for??? It's just not how they work. They're a typical monolithic development house that deals only with releases and occasionally lets beta code out. There are benefits to the approach like not trying to shoot a moving target when it comes to bugs etc. People who've grown up with agile seem to think it's the only way to do quality assurance.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Umm, isn't that what Update Tuesdays are for? Constantly patching IE along with other OS updates?
Life is not for the lazy.
WTF? Most companies don't release nightly builds of their software. Why on earth are we singling out Microsoft, and only one of their products at that? Infrequent releases are the norm, not the exception, and while you may argue that it should change, it's ludicrous to single out one program among thousands for following the standard practice.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Additionally, the article seems to take some things for granted...
the reality is that every other browser has a more regular release cycle than IE does, and that keeps them relevant.
I guess Opera's release and development cycle(s) is why it is so popular!
The result is a strong perception that IE is lagging behind, no matter how great the major release versions are.
The perception that IE is lagging behind has nothing to do with a bad development cycle, it's more tied to ... bad development and a not-very-good product.
and the browser's updates are pushed through Windows Update. The actual browser doesn't have its own updating system, and this is a large part of the reason that over 40 percent of users are still using IE6 and IE7.
That's an interesting assertion. The only backup he gives are numbers for browser stats.
On the whole, this seems like one guy doing an editorial and talking off the cuff. That's how it struck me, anyways.
"Many wonder why Microsoft doesn't offer nightly builds of Internet Explorer."
Whoever "Many" is, they seem to always be interviewed by Ars and FoxNews.
The nightlies of Microsoft Bob basically killed all positive hype for the program. I don't want to see Microsoft Bob in nighties! It was bad enough seeing Bill Gates wiggling his ass for the cameras.
Oh, nightlies ...
I'll have to ask Clippy for linux and get back to you on that ...
Why is the finger always at Microsoft? I vote we embargo the use of the word Microsoft on Slashdot, say, for a month. Usually any Microsoft related post is biased and ill-spirited - getting very old. There are countless software vendors that do not release nightly builds. As much as I adore Slashdot, all the MS haters on here often make me feel as if I'm associating myself with a 'new low' of computer users (sometimes). Kinda like finding yourself in the company of a bunch of racists. It's very fashionable on \. to hate Microsoft. Don't like their stuff?...simply use something else and STFU. I do agree with the article's opinion of saying the update process Microsoft uses is broken - I think Microsoft can do better.
I am not a fan of Internet Explorer at all - however I know people who are, and I can't imagine this mattering to them in the least.
Heck, I can't imagine the vast majority of Firefox or Safari/Chrome users caring about those available snapshots; and I say that as someone who has used nightly builds for both those products fairly frequently!
This just seems silly on the face of it. "Microsoft doesn't follow Firefox's development path", complains a Firefox fan.
#DeleteChrome
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Filed under "weirdest story ever to appear on /."
Next week we can discuss the outrage that stems from Microsoft's refusal to offer free back massages on the New York subway.
From what I've gleaned from various Microsoft blogs, they DO release nightly builds, internally to all their own testers and employees.
That way, as far as I can tell, they get all the benefit of nightly builds, with absolutely zero of the downsides in terms of company image and dealing with buggy software in the wild.
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Well, there's yer problem... The are probably running their build server on windows. Now if they ran a nice Linux build server...
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Hopefully, tomorrow's snapshot of the same article will be better.
Maybe you hadn't noticed, but development of IE7 and IE8 have not been tied to a specific OS at all. IE7 was released before Vista and installs on XP, and IE8 well before Win 7 and that installs on Vista and XP. Microsoft has said that IE9 will be released in 2010, while Windows 8 is set for 2012. IE and Office are both on different development timetables than Windows -- although Office is almost always released 6 to 8 months after a desktop Windows release. Sure, they're linked in some senses because each product has a target platform, but otherwise there is no specific tie-in.
Microsoft's fiscal incentive is to maintain market dominance and some semblance of standards compliance. If they lose too much market share, developers may not create websites to handle IE quirks any longer. Then IE will falter, and MS will not be able to develop web apps only for IE, which is part of their strategy to lock-in users to Windows.
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
Nightly builds, if they were released every time:
Bun
Bun
Bun
Bun
Meat
Meat
Bun + Meat
Bun + Meat
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour
GHERKIN!
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt++
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt+++++
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt + Tomato
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt + That Other Stuff
Bun + Meat + Meaty Flavour + Gherkin + Salt + That Other Slightly Better Stuff
Quarter Pounder With Cheese
As an IT Manager for one of the 100 biggest companies in the world, I couldn't give a flying f*ck about the inbetween. All I want to know is what we're getting. And if it breaks a part of our fundamental application stack, we'll complain or won't use it. If I want something in the release, I'll lobby for it. If you want to be part of the IE development cycle, sign an agreement with MS to be a part of it, then you'll get the alphas and beta.
Total non-story.
--- Band: Joey Ultra
Given how tied into the operating system that MSIE is, I suppose that a build of MSIE would require a significant build of Windows as well.
I find it highly unlikely. In the end, IE lives in its own library, and any OS services that may need it call through that via stabilized COM interfaces. There's no reason why Windows can't be build against precompiled IE binaries and .idl files describing the interface, and similarly no reason why IE can't be built against the most up-to-date Windows SDK headers.