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An Anonymous Coward writes:

In news seemingly designed to create a give me an ulcer, Microsoft is moving Windows Server to Rapid Release.

From the Windows Server blog [microsoft.com]: "Starting this fall, we plan to deliver two feature updates per year, each spring and fall, aligning to the Windows and Office Semi-annual Channel release cycle."

From this systems administrator's perspective, I do not believe Microsoft has shown that they can deliver the QA on updates necessary for rapid release. Personally, I have been testing Windows 10 since 1507 and I have not seen a trend-line of stable consistency within their updates. I thought Microsoft would be able to get it together but, anecdotally, Windows 10 updates have been consistently problematic since release. From Office 2016 blocking the installation of cumulative updates on 1607 LTSB, broken and inconsistent removal of AppX packages when following Microsoft's own recommendations, and installation behaviors being documented after the fact like the wholesale reinstallation of AppX packages following build updates, every single month's updates brings me trepidation.

The removal of their QA department 'programmatic testers' seems to be the culprit. From infamous August 2015 update debacle to problems like W10 1703 erroring [microsoft.com] out on every MDT deployment, this wild inconsistency in monthly update quality has leaked into other Windows branches as well. I have been doing monthly security-only updates with plans to do an annual cumulative update to my templates.

What are other SA's plans about rapid release?

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