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Google said that it is planning on 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?
14 months ago, Chrome was still at version number 1. Today we are well into the version 5 cycle with version 6 approaching beta status. Without doubt, Chrome shows the fastest pace not just in version numbers, but new features, performance and GUI modifications. Google believes that the release cycles aren’t short enough and decided to cut the release time of stable versions in half.
Google will increment the version number of every release, which means that we will be seeing a new Chrome version every six weeks and we will be using Chrome 8 by the end of the year. The actual value of each new release, however, are likely to be less than the value of a new release today: “Those numbers will start to move a little faster than before,” Google program manager Anthony Laforge wrote in a blog post. “Please don’t read too much into the pace of version number changes – they just mean we are moving through release cycles and we are geared up to get fresher releases into your hands!”
Besides the fact that Chrome may almost reach version number parity with Internet Explorer by the end of the year, the Chrome team said that there is actually a benefit to shorter release cycles. The goal is to “shorten the release cycle and still get great features in front of users when they are ready”, “make the schedule more predictable and easier to scope” and “reduce the pressure on engineering to ‘make’ a release.”
Shorter release cycles play into Google’s pace of development, the company said. “We have new features coming out all the time and do not want users to have to wait months before they can use them.” Google promises that the quality will not be impacted: “If a feature is not ready, it will not ship in a stable release.” Creating a predictable schedule will also simplify the communication of the development team, the company believes and allows for an environment that can determine how much can be done in a certain amount of time. “We basically wanted to operate more like trains leaving Grand Central Station (regularly scheduled and always on time), and less like taxis leaving the Bronx (ad hoc and unpredictable),” Google said. Since new releases are now coming all the time, engineers do not have the pressure of finalizing a new feature for a certain release anymore.
Needless to say, Google’s pace is much faster than Mozilla’s and Microsoft’s roadmap. Mozilla is aiming for a major new release once every six months and Microsoft is more on an 18-24 month schedule, which is down from a 5-year schedule in the first half of the decade. Google did not say what the impact of its new release schedule will be as far as beta and developer versions are concerned. But according to the new schedule it feels like Chrome 6 is already overdue. The expectation now is that every Chrome version may not be perceived quite as comprehensive as previous releases. Chrome 6, for example, will deliver major changes in its user interface and menu structure. However, recent Chrome developer versions showed fluctuating HTML5 graphics performance and HTML5 feature support and it appears that the shorter release cycle may help Google to catch up with new features or rivals in less time, while the competition may have a tough time to keep up with Google.
Meanwhile, Mozilla has published the beta schedule for Firefox 4, which is still on track for an October RC release. Beta 2 is schedule for today, while the pre-release of Beta 3 has been posted to the FTP channel a few days ago. Mozilla has just released the 3.6.7 security update in anticipation of possible security exploits that could be announced at Blackhat next week. Originally, 3.6.6 was designed to be the Blackhat release, but now we are already seeing 3.6.8, which fixes yet another security and will be released as an emergency update, depending on the news coming out of Blackhat.
Microsoft is still gearing up for IE9 Beta to be released next month. In the past Microsoft took its time to come out with the final version. IE8 Beta, for example, took an entire year to make it to final. IE9, we hear, has matured and may be released much quicker and definitely before the end of the year.
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