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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

#61

Post by el_benhameen »

enitihas wrote: post #13
yingw787 wrote: post #8

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.

Bingo. I've been full-time remote for a few years. I have little kids who are in the house a lot, and I've adjusted to the disruptions that can entail. But the stress and anxiety of the current situation are more difficult to adjust to. Hard to shake anxiety over something like this if you're prone to it.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#62

Post by rwc »

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?

Didn’t stop Apple today from releasing new iPads, Macbook Airs, and Mac Minis...

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#65

Post by cameronbrown »

hanse00 wrote: post #44
rcfw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

One man’s obstacle is another man’s security measure :) I used to work in Techstop, I wonder how crazy of a time that team is having right now. But I wouldn’t call them an obstacle.

Techstop and CorpEng have been absolutely amazing through this situation -- I wish them them the best.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#67

Post by eyelidlessness »

throwGuardian wrote: post #42
eyelidlessness wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also considering the impact on developers targeting Chrome and Chrome OS platforms[1], which is a welcome consideration. 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. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22620254

I don't understand. Regardless of COVID, they always need to consider the impact on developers. Like I said in my previous comment, the newly remote Chrome team may be facing many unseen roadblocks, but I expect that to be a temporal window of delay, after which the team should resume shipping, albeit at a slower cadence due to reduced productivity compared to normal-times WFH.

> I don't understand. Regardless of COVID, they always need to consider the impact on developers.

Sure, but that impact might be somewhat more... impactful right now. This isn't that difficult. If you're a FB user, you probably saw last night nearly all of your friends reporting that their posts were being flagged as spam yesterday. That's because a bunch of people were sent home and the automated system took over. Staffs are being sent home and their ability to work effectively is reduced. The prospect of breaking changes and new bugs in the world's most popular web browser could put more strain on already strained teams that are struggling to keep up with both their current working environment and new challenges as they respond to the public health crisis. Removing that as a factor is a net benefit for those teams and for all of their users.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#68

Post by eyelidlessness »

kinlan wrote: post #54
throwGuardian wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. Regardless of COVID, they always need to consider the impact on developers. Like I said in my previous comment, the newly remote Chrome team may be facing many unseen roadblocks, but I expect that to be a temporal window of delay, after which the team should resume shipping, albeit at a slower cadence due to reduced productivity compared to normal-times WFH.

We always consider the needs of developers, but we also tend to ask a lot of them (new perf, security, capabilities etc etc) in more normal situations, but I'd add this is a highented situation for all users and develers where everyone is requiring information and access to services like never before it makes sense to be very prudent in all of our rollouts. Whilst I love NFC API, it's not critical at this moment wher…

I want to say that I appreciate your team's decision and I especially appreciate your personal effort to answer questions here in public. I'm sure it's frustrating when people second guess important decisions during a stressful time. Just want you to know I (and I'm sure many others) see your effort and appreciate it.

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#69

Post by _nalply »

nixpulvis wrote: post #53
EdwardDiego wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guess the "decades run from 1 to 10, not 0 to 9" people won that argument.

2010?

> Guess the "decades run from 1 to 10, not 0 to 9" people won that argument.

Like: the twenties run from 2021 to 2030, not from 2020 to 2029.

Because the year after 1 BC is 1 AD. There is no year zero. This is one of the weird things of our calendar. More about that see Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_zero.

So, the first millennium is from 1 to 1000, the second from 1001 to 2000 and the third from 2001 to 3000. And the twenties being the third decade start with the year 2021, and so on.

The comment is just snarky, because people have a mess with dates. Usually people start counting with one, even if mathematically starting with zero would make more sense. But hey, they make an exception for millennia, centuries and decades. They start with zero. Bravo!

In a sense this is funny. People don't usually start counting with zero. Of all things they do this for decades, however for once this is not ... applicable? useful? right?

Re: We are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases

#70

Post by ksec »

Aaronstotle wrote: post #40
airstrike wrote: post #3

2020: the year that did not exist

I joked with my friend a few weeks ago that B.C. would stand for before Corona/Covid. Unfortunately, it looks like it's not as much of a joke and the impacts of it are only starting to become clear, I hope we can learn from it so if there's another pandemic we can react much faster.

That is a good joke :) I will steal that.
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