In the forums and blog comments I see out there, people who follow the development of Google’s browser tend to be amazed at how it “jumps” from versions so quickly. In addition, the small time gap between one and the other stable version of the program causes admiration for several users.
To get a sense, not even 2 years have passed program launch and it is already about to stabilize its version 6.0!
On the other hand, this “hustle and bustle” does not occur with other browsers and may be helping Google Chrome to leverage its number of active users, compared to large competitors.
Mozilla Firefox, for example, had its second stable release released after 1 year of launching the first. The third version took even longer, that is, almost 2 years to be released. And so on, its cycle of stable versions had lasted approximately 12 months, until the search giant went to war with its browser and Mozilla had to review your planning.
However, despite the speed with which these versions are made available, the Chromium development team (Google Chrome open source project) released today which will increase the frequency of release of new stable versions, with the main objectives of:
- Decrease the time that end users take to receive the news developed;
- Make the schedule more predictable and easier to meet; and
- Reduce the pressure on engineers whenever a new stable version has to be completed.
The first of the objectives, if achieved, will satisfy many users of the browser (whether fanatical or not), as they will start receiving the “great” new features as soon as they are fully developed.
Let’s say, for example, that Google finishes the development of the “print preview”, which is one of the resources most requested by users. However, let’s say that engineers still need, for example, to finish developing a new button, as the schedule said that the new stable version would only be released with both features ready. What had been happening in this case was that, if the responsible team was unable to finish the new button in time, or the new version would leave without the feature that was not ready and it would wait about 3 months to be released, or the launch of the version was extended. Certainly, for these and other reasons, Mozilla has such difficulty in fulfilling your schedules.
We can also read in these objectives above a probable explanation for the already so fast advance in the numbering of Google’s browser versions. However, as disclosed, the company is still not satisfied and intends to double the speed of the process.
As Google said, starting in the coming months the versions will be launched even faster so that new features that are already ready are used by users as soon as they stabilize. Consequently, the launch schedule will be more strictly adhered to and engineers will be able to walk peacefully through the googleplex gardens.
Users (who are the most important) will no longer have to wait for the long development cycle of their browser, which was occurring as shown in the image below:
That way, according to my estimates, Google Chrome could reach its version 36.0 in just the next five years!
If you are really impatient or want to experience the different stages of browser development, download the “update channel” you prefer using the following links: Dev – Beta – Stable (Windows versions).
And if you want to understand how each of these channels differ, click here and read the definition given by Google in English.
–
Guilherme S. Canhetti is a law student and a fan of Google Chrome in particular.
