31–40 of 79 posts
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.
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.
I wouldn't be surprised if even the best of those systems requires some human supervision.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
OS updates on ChromeOS are seamless and mostly go unnoticed by the user, FWIW.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure that's part of it but going remote also introduces a ton a workflow impediments as the team adjusts.
There are a lot of obstacles for temps/contractors to gain remote access at google. I'd imagine a lot of testing is done by people who aren't FTEs. disclaimer: I am a Googler, but know nothing about how the Chrome team operates
I thought that Google were all-in on BeyondCorp, which doesn't require a secure perimetre. Did they not actually convert everything, or is it still in progress?
(edit: removed a non-constructive suggestion)
2020 has been cancelled. A false start to the new decade.
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
Edit to add: this also has a follow-on effect of reducing the possibility that end users experience problems due to breaking changes or bugs, which is also important considering nearly everyone is depending on the internet at this time.
2020: the year that did not exist
I hope that Google and other companies will encourage remote teams and divisions after this event. Having the ability for some teams to primarily work from home might provide some hermetic guarantee of continued development and liveness during a time of crisis.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OS updates on ChromeOS are seamless and mostly go unnoticed by the user, FWIW.
Except when they move the launch bar from here to there or hide scrollbars or make any of a million other changes that cause your screen to no longer resemble the screenshot you're trying to learn from.
2020: the year that did not exist