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Google Schedules Chrome 6, 7, and 8 For This Year
An anonymous reader writes "Google said that it will be releasing a new stable version of Chrome every six weeks, which is about twice as fast as the release pace today. The goal is to make new features available when they are done and to make Chrome releases more predictable. Has anyone complained that there were too few new Chrome releases? Mozilla has been releasing a major new browser update twice a year and Microsoft is on an 18-24 month pace. Firefox's 4.0 Beta 2 is scheduled for release soon, and it appears that Mozilla is somewhat paranoid about the Black Hat Conference. 3.6.6 was planned to be the original 'Black Hat release'; now we are at version 3.6.7 and Mozilla has already a build candidate of 3.6.8 that will be released depending on news coming out of Black Hat."
Maybe because "Internet Explorer 9" sounds better than "Chrome 5" to some people just because of the version number.
I'm still on 3.0. I see no reason to continue upgrading if what I have works just fine (holds-up copy of Office 97).
Plus upgrades often don't go as planned, like when my CWtv.com player stopped working after I moved from 2.5x to 3.0. And now I hear people are having problems with Youtube Downloaders after they jumped to 3.6.whatever last week. I follow two principles: If it aint broke; dont fix it. And KISS.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
So are these all beta's?
the average joe might think the IE 8 is better than Chrome 5 or FF 4... Just a thought
It gets upgraded automatically anyway, no reason to encourage people there... (yes, I do hope, perhaps in vain, that it doesn't affect the decisions on the level of "I can't use this browser, it has too low number")
One that hath name thou can not otter
Not me.. I use Opera and .. telnet/curl
What happens after version 12? Do we go to version 13 or skip that like buildings do with floors?
Anyway Firefox V4.0 is in beta, while 3.7 is still in alpha.
Anyone that says, "Oh, Internet Explorer 9 is better than Chrome 5" is an idiot.
That's like saying, "Terminator 4 is clearly better than The Godfather, look it's 3 versions newer!"
MABASPLOOM!
with integrated goatse speed dial
Certainly, there have been complaints that features that are stable in the beta channel not being in stable; having more frequent feature releases to stable addresses that.
As it is, Chrome 2.0 should have been the 1.0 RTM, with everything before being a 0.x public release candidate(probably 0.5 onward). 3.0 simply added initial support for HTML 5 and improved code, a point release. 4.0 seems pretty real, so that might be have been a 2.0 in traditional terms. Probably by the upcoming version is a credible for real 3.0.
Version numbering really does not matter, but to assert that releasing a version every six weeks is necessary to release features more often is silly. What Google is in fact saying is that Chrome is a very immature browser with a very immature feature set, and they are wiling to sacrifice everything else that once made Chrome a legitimate browser in an effort to make it buzzword compliant.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Seems like the most logical explaination to me as well. This is Mozilla's golden chance to end the browser war with one fell swoop by rebranding!
I always thought using Emacs 23 to browse the web was at least 4 years ahead of its time.
...when half of the great features are fired behind a stupid launching flag and a large chunk of them end up going unnoticed by most people, resulting in them appearing to be unpopular and getting canned. Yes, even in the DEVELOPER versions, where it is pretty pointless.
Even an external program to add the flags would be much better, then you would be able to give all the flags power of 2 IDs so they can be combined easily, instead of stupidly long lists of flags that have rather redundant names...
C:\chrome-win32\chrome.exe --enable-webgl --in-process-webgl --enable-apps --enable-vertical-tabs
That's just not nice. Phantom tabs was there till it was killed recently.
If it isn't going to be added back in via flags or options, at least allow an extension to kill a process so we can get tab idle timers and "pause all but this tab" options or similar.
Let's not forget the lack of any advanced options, outside of the recent-ish content blocking page. (and i doubt anyone would class Under The Bonnet as advanced)
Would it kill to have an about:config page for the more advanced features, instead of hiding them behind flags or not even having them at all?
After all, wasn't Chromium supposed to be dynamic? Why so static?
Also, hopefully they fix the compacted menu, it is a bit messy and hides away some of the more useful features, like, oh, i dunno, EXTENSIONS.
Making a UI usually sticks to certain standards, but hiding extensions behind a child menu is nonsense, you are wanting people to get in to extensions remember.
And to wrap it all up, whoever added vertical tabs, i raise my fist to you, you are awesome.
I'd prefer the titlebar wasn't there, or the whole toolbar section became the new titlebar, it feels wrong seeing that up there with only 3 useful things on it...
I won't be happy until my browser updates every time I launch it and at least once an hour while I'm browsing. And the updates should force an automatic restart.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.6.8, a 'chemspill' release to fix a regression that could allow exploitability. If anything is found at Black Hat, they'll release Firefox 3.6.9.
2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
The 'release often' methodology is typical for agile. It generally comes down from management as a way of trying to ultimately improve the bottom line. Whether it does or not is debatable, however that is irrelevant once management is convinced and has paid big bucks for agile consulting so need to get returns.
We are currently going through these pains at our place of work - it remains to be seen how the developers accept it and how well it works. Posting as AC.
Google:
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Spying on Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Chinese market over freedom of speech
Rehashed Programming languages over some new ideas
Rush jobs over tested software?... dunno, well see...
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
is not always good. If you are talking about changes like Safari 4 to 5 where nothing changed much in terms of interface and user interaction, it's just a version number. But if you start monkeying around with the UI and changing things that quickly. You make people mad.
As an example I'll use Blender 3D. I used to work as the IT guy in a post production shop that mostly used Lightwave about a decade ago. I got to learn some of the basics, but 3D was a hobby along with video editing. I did some work on the side with FCP, but all the 3D work I did was pure fun & hobby. I was no where near talented enough to do it pro and the $2000 price tag of Lightwave made it a bit pricey (especially given the rendering times). Blender became usable for my goals in the 2.3x series and best of all I could get relatively cheap distributed rendering. I forget the exact details, but it was something like $50 per month unlimited frames of Blender. And I could do it month to month. So basically I'd create my scenes. That usually would take 3 - 5 months to get a few minutes of video. Once I had enough scenes to render about 5 minutes worth of animation, I'd buy a month subscription to the service and render away with multiple passes, etc..
Well, then things started to change with the 2.4x version where it seemed like just as I got used to the new interface, boom, everything suddenly changed and I'd spent the next month trying to figure out where all the old buttons went and what the new ones did. Then the physics engine changed and all the previous scenes I had with particles effects would have to be redone and this continued it seemed like every 6 months. As someone who got to use the program a few hours a week, it seemed like every 6 months I was trying to relearn a program I had been using since 2000.
Meanwhile, in the last couple years if I had used Lightwave, I would have had to upgrade once between Lightwave 8 and 9. And frankly, the interface hasn't changed that much since I started using the application in 1999 with version 5.6. A few things have moved, a bunch of features have been added, but basically I can load up the demo of 9 and within a weekend have my first scene ready to render. The overall style of the interface hasn't changed that much.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
... you have no idea how right you are.
Firefox just prompted me to update to 3.6.8, for the record. I'm sure more people have or will be seeing this.
People talk about Google missing out a version number so that they can keep up with IE. Not only is this argument petty and absurd, its not true. Chrome versions 1-6 have been showing up on my statistics for a while now.
My web domain.
Chrome has been sucking for me lately. Slow displaying Yahoo Mail and has problems displaying pdfs with the adobe plugin.
In related news, Microsoft just announced they will be pushing out new versions of Windows on a daily basis. Today you're running Windows 7, but by year's end you'll be on Windows 168. There, fixed that for you.
Slackware went from version 4 to version 7 in five short months to match version numbers with another distro, I believe Redhat.
Didn't even bother with a 5 or a 6, just cranked the number up to match somebody else. The "bigger number is better" mentality is too ingrained in many users' minds.
(approval word: 'browbeat'. Slashdot's word choices can be eerie.)
Version numbers mean nothing - only features matter. Real news for nerds would be when Chrome feature development outpaces its rivals. It shouldn't be terribly difficult. Start by fully supporting the open standards that are already available, like SVG, XForms, WebDAV and CalDAV, for example. Version numbers - meh, who gives a shit?
Here we go again with version number games! Gotta get to a big number quickly so people think your browser is at least as good as your competitor's.
Chrome 3? Why would I use Chrome 3? Internet Explorer is at 8! EIGHT!!!
What's wrong with 5? Or 3 for that matter.
I'm still missing some of the layout in Firefox 2. A high number does nothing on its own.
We are all God's parents.
So far everyone seems to be saying that the version number is a publicity thing; but I've been using chrome for about 6 months and have no idea what my version number is. What sort of publicity stunt hides in the background only visible to people who go out of their way to check the "about" menu?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
"Release early, release often" - Linus Torvalds. As long as they are properly tested and this hyperactive release schedule doesn't push them into buggy releases, go for it.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Question: What's this Black Hat version of Firefox? From the sound of it, I'm assuming it's a version that's tested for security by the...darker-helmed of the userbase.
Google is lighting a fire under Microsoft's ass to release IE9. We know for certain that MS is prone to these versioning games, and once Chrome starts hitting version 7/8, they'll be pressured into releasing IE9 just to stay ahead of the game. Brilliant move on Google's part, playing Microsoft right into the corner they (and the rest of the world) want them in.
From v4.65 to v9.00 wierd.
Sounds like it's going to be Linux style releases, where they make a minor update every 6 weeks or so. In Linux, the 2.6 part of the version number has become almost meaningless (since we know it's going to stay 2.6), and the .34 part is what's important. So Linux is on version 34 after 6 years or so.
So how many updates until Chrome stops using most of my Mac's CPU and making it sound like a jet engine? Is that Chrome 7? I hope it's 6.