Microsoft is pausing Edge updates in the stable channel due to the coronavirus

[Karlston]

Microsoft is pausing Edge updates in the stable channel due to the coronavirus

 

Earlier this week, Google announced that it's pausing feature updates in the stable channel for Chrome, and now Microsoft is following suit. As of right now, the firm is holding back the update for Edge 81, which is already in testing in the Beta channel.

 

The move is unsurprising, given the COVID-19 coronavirus and the amount of people that are working from home at this time. As Google also promised, Microsoft will still be releasing security and stability updates as they're needed.

 

 

It's likely that we're going to hear similar announcements from other software vendors, or at least for web browsers that are based on Chromium. That includes Brave, Vivaldi, and a bunch more.

 

Naturally, there's no actual date for when updates are going to start rolling out again, because it's unclear when this will all be over. As it stands right now, Edge Beta is testing Edge 81, while the Dev and Canary branches are testing Edge 82.

 

 

Source: Microsoft is pausing Edge updates in the stable channel due to the coronavirus (Neowin)

[BimBamSmash]

I kind of think that the only reason MS paused things on Edge is because Google has done so at their end. MS is (sort of) building their browser on Google's open source code after all - there probably exists some degree of coordination between the two.

 

If MS were to go solo and add stuff of their own to the code while Google was out, MS could end up backtracking and changing lot of their work due to incompatibilities and stability-breaking hiccups introduced by Google later on.

 

I mean, MS are not pausing development on the Teams app for the same reasons, are they?

[Karlston]

Microsoft mirrors Google move, shelves Edge upgrades

In response to the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Edge browser will remain on version 80 for an undetermined amount of time.

Microsoft

Microsoft last week followed Google's lead, telling customers that it was suspending releases of its Edge browser.

 

Citing "current global circumstances" rather than outright naming the COVID-19 pandemic and its upturning of, well, virtually everything, Microsoft said it would not upgrade the current Edge 80 to the next version, Edge 81.

 

"As the situation evolves," Microsoft said, it will inform customers of other changes, and presumably when it will resume Edge refreshes, through the Microsoft Edge Dev account on Twitter.

 

Google made a similar announcement March 18, telling Chrome users it had stopped upgrading the browser a day after it was due to shift from version 80 to 81.

 

Google didn't say COVID-19 triggered the decision either, asserting that the "adjusted work schedule" was to blame. Both decisions were, of course, clearly caused by the pandemic and its disruptions, including vast numbers of company employees sent home to work there.

 

(In a tweet, Paul Kinlan, the lead for the developer relations team at Google, ticked off several specific reasons for the suspension, including "lower productivity, worry about asking ecosystem to change, being able to respond quickly when there's an issue.")

 

It wasn't a surprise that Microsoft followed Google in halting browser upgrades. Both Chrome and Edge, after all, rely on the Google-led open-source Chromium project for their core technologies. "We are making this change to be consistent with the Chromium project, which recently announced a similar pause due to adjusted schedules," wrote Kyle Pflug, principal program management lead, in the Friday post.

 

Like Google, Microsoft told users that it will continue to service version 80 of its browser with security updates. The Redmond, Wash. company did just that Thursday, when it refreshed Edge to build 80.0.3987.149; that build included fixes for the same vulnerabilities cited by Google when it patched Chrome 80 the day before.

 

Mozilla has not said if it would maintain its every-four-week schedule of upgrading Firefox, which last month accounted for far less browser share than Chrome but more than Edge. The next update, to Firefox 75, is expected April 7.

 

 

Source: Microsoft mirrors Google move, shelves Edge upgrades (Computerworld - Gregg Keizer)