• Opinions on Win10’s feature upgrade cycle?

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    Ars Technica has posted an article, “Microsoft’s problem isn’t how often it updates Windows—it’s how it develops it“. Did anyone else read it?

    It’s actually an OpEd piece, IMO, but I found parts of it quite interesting. Basically, it’s premise is that Microsoft’s development process is (and always has been) fundamentally flawed, and is failing miserably under Microsoft’s self-imposed twice-a-year feature upgrade schedule for Win10.

    Parts of it seemed a stretch, such as when he compared the Windows development process to that of Google Chrome, which he deemed more efficient. Windows is not just more complex than the Chrome Browser, it is many orders of magnitude more complex, so I think it’s unproven that Google’s dev methodology can scale up to the complexity of Windows and still be as successful.

    OTOH, other parts of his argument were more intriguing, such as this:

    … if we cast our minds back to the days of Windows 7 and before, … [the] regular advice was that you shouldn’t upgrade to a new version of Windows until Service Pack 1 was out. Why not? Because the initial release would be unacceptably buggy and unstable, and it would take until Service Pack 1 for most of these problems to be worked out.

    The difference is not that the new approach to Windows development is much worse than it used to be, or that the old process delivered better results; it’s that we’re seeing that “wait for Service Pack 1” moment twice a year. With each new update there’s a point at which Microsoft deems the code to be good enough for corporate users, perhaps three or four months after the initial release of a feature update, and that’s our “new” Service Pack 1 moment.

    As such we’re getting the worst of all worlds: from the old Windows development approach, we’re seeing releases that just aren’t good enough on day one. From the new Windows development approach, we’re seeing those releases twice a year, rather than once every three years. That pre-Service Pack instability is with us for much of the year.

    I find that thought-provoking, especially in light of what seems (to me) like a higher number of horror stories (compared to earlier Win versions) being posted after each feature upgrade is released.

    I’m a Win7 user and only dabble in Win10, so I’ll admit I’m biased. What do Win10 users have to say about the Ars article?

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