Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers
Google zaps Chrome updates with shrink ray, and there was much rejoicing
Google seems to feel the same way, which has led Chrome/Chromium developers to implement a new binary diff algorithm (dubbed Courgette) which greatly reduces the size of its updates. Courgette delivers updates that are .08% the size of the Chromium mini installer (about 80Kb as opposed to 10Mb). In the official blog post, they state "It is an anathema to us to push out a whole new 10MB update to give you a ten line security fix." Can I get an Amen?
The blog also offers several reasons Google is excited about the new, Liliputian updates:
We want smaller updates because it narrows the window of vulnerability. If the update is a tenth of the size, we can push ten times as many per unit of bandwidth. We have enough users that this means more users will be protected earlier. A secondary benefit is that a smaller update will work better for users who don't have great connectivity.Now if we could just convince other application developers to adopt this kind of attitude toward patching. I'm not going to hold my breath.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
srk998 said 9:20PM on 7-15-2009
Amen.
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Arnie said 9:49PM on 7-15-2009
As a web developer I appreciate this, but realistically its extremely complex coding wise to implement this.
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Evenio said 10:27PM on 7-15-2009
Which is why someone needs to do what Andy Matuschak did for OS X app updaters with Sparkle: write a freely usable framework or utility that generates these tiny difference files for you and makes them available as updates to their respective apps. Take the legwork out of it and it'll become more appealing, and thus more widely implemented.
wrabbit said 10:08PM on 7-15-2009
@Arnie: It may be complex but we're not dealing with amateurs here exactly. Every major developer should update to a similar system. Just the other day there was an iTunes update, apparently only a few bug fixes, yet the patch file was somewhere in the area of 70MB - that is absurd, and for a company that is suppose to be all about user experience, it's the furthest thing from user-friendliness.
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blaszta said 10:22PM on 7-15-2009
Amen..
@arnie: a good software developer should at least invest their time to learn it.. sometimes the problem is not they don't know how to do it, but they're too lazy to implement it.
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RogueJedi86 said 10:37PM on 7-15-2009
How does Chrome patch anyways? I keep it open for weeks without restarting the browser, and yet it's always up to date. I've never seen a notification of a new version. Does it stream patches into the browser software while it's still running?
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motoxo said 11:50PM on 7-15-2009
does this help them make chrome for os x?
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Wil said 5:12AM on 7-16-2009
I don't know, wouldn't leave the code open to those with malicious intent? If you can just go in and add code I mean? I'm not a software developer but hopefully they have figured this out if it's even a concern/issue.
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Cesar said 10:07AM on 7-16-2009
Amen!
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Dave Forster said 1:15PM on 7-16-2009
Its not that difficult really.... just make your app very modular. If you take a look in the Chrome install directory you find it full of various dll's and js files. Any bug fixes or enhancements may only affect one of these files... so just roll that file out.
Plenty of software is updated using incremental updates... antivirus and spyware software for example. Microsoft have been doing this for years via Windows update (when was the last time you had to install windows from scratch because they tweaked a few things)
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Nathaniel said 6:46PM on 7-16-2009
Does anyone know what Chrome version this is effective in?
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