14 DAY TRIAL // Google's much talked about browser, Google Chrome, just got to version 2.0, only six months after the initial release. But the rate that it's evolving at and the new features it has been added has some web developers worried that the constant changes might affect their sites and the way they render or behave.
“As a web developer, it can be a bit daunting that the browser version changes so fast: What if the new version breaks something? How can I be prepared for changes that will affect my sites?, ” Alex Russell, a software engineer on the Chrome team, wrote on the Chromium blog.
The uncertainty has led the developers of Google Chrome to clarify how they are approaching their releases and development cycles and what the different branches mean for web developers. Google Chrome is released in three branches they call 'channels'.
The stable channel is the current 'stable' version that most users will be using. A stable version only changes with the biggest number in the build, currently '2'. This means that all the major components of Chrome will not change during that time, and this includes Apple's open-source rendering engine that Chrome uses, WebKit, as well as its own V8 JavaScript engine and other components like the networking stack. All updates in the stable channel will be for bug fixing, security and stability.
The beta channel is the branch that web developers or others interested use to test new features or updated internal components before they are released to the public at large. The focus will be on the internal components though, as once a feature set is presented when a major beta version arrives it will remain pretty much fixed.
Finally there is the Dev channel, where all the bleeding-edge changes are being made. Modifications are frequent and the focus is on adding more features and testing the code as it develops. This channel is generally destined for developers working on Chrome or others interested in the latest features and advancements.