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We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

blog.chromium.org

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Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#21

Post by enitihas »

gingerlime wrote: post #19
enitihas wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is similar to normal remote work though. Schools are closed, so people can't work on home in isolation. On top of that people must be anxious. When people are worried about lots of other stuff their output may not be the same. Even basecamp, which is highly remote, postponed their email service launch.

> Even basecamp, which is highly remote, postponed their email service launch. I’m sure the added stress didn’t help, but I would imagine it’s more related to marketing. Do you really want to launch a new product at this time of uncertainty?

Considering that it was an email service, focused on making async communication better, one would think right now might be a pretty good time when a large number of people are working from home.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#22

Post by throwGuardian »

Remote work now is likely lower in productivity than normal-times WFH. If a software company cannot adjust to remote delivery, albeit at lower than normal productivity, the rest of the economy has no hope.

I don't understand Google's decision here - I wish they simply predicted a longer than normal release cadence, versus none at all

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#23

Post by londons_explore »

mpalmer wrote: post #9
czechdeveloper wrote: post #2

I wonder, if people just stopped working or moved on some covid related project?

I believe major releases are blocked because much of the QA staff isn't authorized to access key systems remotely.

A project like Chrome, where there is no super high value source code, shouldn't really be having this issue...

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#24

Post by londons_explore »

throwGuardian wrote: post #22

Remote work now is likely lower in productivity than normal-times WFH. If a software company cannot adjust to remote delivery, albeit at lower than normal productivity, the rest of the economy has no hope. I don't understand Google's decision here - I wish they simply predicted a longer than normal release cadence, versus none at all

Perhaps because some testing needs to be done on physical devices in a real lab?

"Please test this build of Chrome on these 1000 various models of android phones" sounds kinda hard to automate.

Even if you had automated it, you'd probably still need someone in the office to poke hardware that locked up, etc.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#25

Post by dickeytk »

enitihas wrote: post #21
gingerlime wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even basecamp, which is highly remote, postponed their email service launch. I’m sure the added stress didn’t help, but I would imagine it’s more related to marketing. Do you really want to launch a new product at this time of uncertainty?

Considering that it was an email service, focused on making async communication better, one would think right now might be a pretty good time when a large number of people are working from home.

strategically perhaps, but the optics on that are so awful. I'd argue it's the wrong thing to do if you thought you'd be more profitable in a crisis.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#26

Post by est31 »

londons_explore wrote: post #23
mpalmer wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe major releases are blocked because much of the QA staff isn't authorized to access key systems remotely.

A project like Chrome, where there is no super high value source code, shouldn't really be having this issue...

Chrome runs with user privileges on billions of computers. The impact of someone hacking the software delivery chain and inserting malware is enourmous, let alone the risk for the brand/user trust. And don't forget that Chrome is not a charity project, but meant to secure Google's search and adtech monopoly. They actually pay a lot of money for Firefox to ship their search engine as default, and that's for a tiny market share.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#28

Post by enitihas »

dickeytk wrote: post #25
enitihas wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that it was an email service, focused on making async communication better, one would think right now might be a pretty good time when a large number of people are working from home.

strategically perhaps, but the optics on that are so awful. I'd argue it's the wrong thing to do if you thought you'd be more profitable in a crisis.

It's not about being profitable. They could even maybe launch it below cost and that might help people even if it costs them. The parent talked about marketing. And people using something and benefitting from it, and then recommending to others is probably one of the best forms of it.

The optics are bad if you try to profit unreasonably. Launching something to help people become more productive, and making reasonable money out of it doesn't have bad optics.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#29

Post by kinlan »

czechdeveloper wrote: post #2

I wonder, if people just stopped working or moved on some covid related project?

The blog post is pretty accurate. I know it seems pretty general, but nearly the entire team is working remote and at the same time it's not prudent to push change on the ecosystem when everyone is trying to keep their site running.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#30

Post by LanceH »

dickeytk wrote: post #15

Without knowing much about the team I really doubt this has much to do with remote work. It seems like a smart move to take pressure off team deliverables in general right now for a host of reasons.

Local schools are leaning heavily on chromebooks. They have checked them out to students without computers. Adding an os update to this would contribute to the chaos.
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