Friday, July 26th 2019
Microsoft's Biannual Major Windows 10 Update Cycle to Slow Down
Microsoft has reportedly restructured the way it adds major features to Windows 10 over time. The company currently has a biannual (twice a year) cadence in updating Windows 10 version. A major update in this context refers to a multi-gigabyte update package that changes the operating system's version, its key system files, and makes significant changes to the user interface. The most recent of these was the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903).
With its new update cadence, Microsoft plans to distribute a major update in one half of an year, and a "minor" update in the other half. This "minor" update, or "point update," is much lighter in download size, but is still fairly bigger than a monthly "Patch Tuesday" update, and adds features and UI changes. The "major" annual update brings with it under-the-hood changes to the OS, such as updates to its kernel, scheduler, APIs, driver models, etc. The next version of Windows, which is expected to be Windows 10 version 1909, will be a lightweight update if you're already on 1903, but a "heavy" update if you're still on 1809. Its successor, Windows 10 version 2003 (March 2020), will be a "heavy" update regardless of which version you're on.
Source:
ExtremeTech
With its new update cadence, Microsoft plans to distribute a major update in one half of an year, and a "minor" update in the other half. This "minor" update, or "point update," is much lighter in download size, but is still fairly bigger than a monthly "Patch Tuesday" update, and adds features and UI changes. The "major" annual update brings with it under-the-hood changes to the OS, such as updates to its kernel, scheduler, APIs, driver models, etc. The next version of Windows, which is expected to be Windows 10 version 1909, will be a lightweight update if you're already on 1903, but a "heavy" update if you're still on 1809. Its successor, Windows 10 version 2003 (March 2020), will be a "heavy" update regardless of which version you're on.
44 Comments on Microsoft's Biannual Major Windows 10 Update Cycle to Slow Down
And i think its a better way to take bigger hurdles, wich then only occur once a year and not 2 or 3 times a year.
When it's done it's done.
What puzzles me is that MS decided to begin this fast upgrade scheme to be more competitive - previously any big change to the OS had to wait for years and it was hard to plan, particularly if the new feature could not make it in time for the release date - and now they’ve gone back on their footsteps.
I suppose that 12 months is still better than several years though - from an organisation and developer perspective.
At least this is a move toward the right direction.
My wish: dark mode everything! Even that old control panel.
Having a main release every year helps on this. I see why.
I don't mind. But MS finally realised that people also use computers to WORK or to do serious stuff and updates DO NOT COME FIRST! They finally gave the user some control.
But like suggested above, make Windows a rolling release and release when ready. There's a better chance to prevent bugs from slipping through when you don't have a bunch of other features and fixes lumped together. The problem is businesses won't go for that because they just have to be "special".
Edit: And btw, the cycle has already slowed down. I mean, we all got 1903 in June, right?
W10s layout is annoying plus the updates...
Who actually thinks posting your e-mail address on the login
screen is a bright idea???
I've been on Linux for years now. While I have no axe to grind
against MS products, I still think Win7 is better than Win10.
If you are in business IT you know the updates for Win10 is an on going pain in the rear and keeping up with every build is seemingly impossible without a huge crew.
We don't need biannual button move rebuilds
These days I only boot into Windows to print stuff (I got a printer with drivers for Ubuntu, joke's on me for not checking IPP) and for the occasional site that doesn't work without a MS supplied browser.
Like intels understanding that being to aggressive in taking risks (10nm with cobalt) could cost more time (trial and error cycles) and is more expensive.
Pre-testing is cheaper than hotfixing most of the time.
A got a Brother that, while it supplies .deb. and .rpm drivers, leaves you out in the cold when you cannot install those. IPP is supposedly supported way better on Linux.
also, does AMD or Nvidia support Linux better? gpu wise
AMD has migrated their driver onto the standard architecture for Linux (Mesa), so their cards work without moving a finger. However, that doesn't jive too well with Ubuntu, because that's a conservative distro and pack rather old packages. So if you want to use a very new card, support may not be baked in yet. You can, of course, update Mesa yourself (and it's not even that hard), but the extra hassle kinda negates the built-in support plus. There were troubles with HDMI audio if you're into that kind of thing and if you need compute, I think AMD's closed driver is still the better option.
Nvidia has their own driver that you must install yourself (Ubuntu has a graphical tool for that). It's what I'm using and it worked for me for 10+ years. Support for new cards is usually day 1; if not, it's within a week or so.
Microsoft is still failing massively at this of course. With Azure growing though there is hope that they'll start seeing what all their customers are doing and begin to mimic. If you need to update a single line of code, do it. Don't wait to pair that change with 3000 others and hope it's all just ok.
I mean QA automation is great and all but seriously it's not a Genie.
Continuous deployment is about reducing risk, not increasing it.
Modern tools thus are looked at with distrusting eyes and many arguments happen between younger and older engineers.
I get it, but when you're the guys supposed to be leading the charge like MS, it's bad. Azure cloud has a long way to go to catch AWS but it's growth is still amazing and they're still beating google cloud ffs.
How in the world do some of these older practices still exist when they've developed all kinds of these tools for their own cloud platform?
it's weird.