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Regular Windows 10 Users Who Manually Look For Updates May End Up Downloading Beta Code, Microsoft Says (techspot.com)
In addition to relying on Windows Insiders, employees, and willing participants for testing updates, Microsoft is pushing patches before they are known to be stable to regular users too if they opt to click the "check for updates" button on their own, the company said. From a report: In a blog post by Michael Fortin, Corporate Vice President for Windows, it is made clear that home users are intentionally being given updates that are not necessarily ready for deployment. Many power users are familiar with Patch Tuesday. On the second Tuesday of each month, Microsoft pushes out a batch of updates at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time on this day containing security fixes, bug patches, and other non-security fixes. Updates pushed out as part of Patch Tuesday are known as "B" release since it happens during the second week of the month.
During the third and fourth weeks of the month are where things begin to get murky. Microsoft's "C" and "D" releases are considered previews for commercial customers and power users. No security fixes are a part of these updates, but for good reasoning. Microsoft has come out to directly say that some users are the guinea pigs for everyone else. In some fairness to Microsoft, C and D updates are typically only applied when a user manually checks for updates by clicking the button buried within Settings. However, if end users really wanted to be a part of testing the latest features, the Windows Insider Program is designed exactly for that purpose. Further reading: Windows 10's 'Check for updates' button may download beta code.
During the third and fourth weeks of the month are where things begin to get murky. Microsoft's "C" and "D" releases are considered previews for commercial customers and power users. No security fixes are a part of these updates, but for good reasoning. Microsoft has come out to directly say that some users are the guinea pigs for everyone else. In some fairness to Microsoft, C and D updates are typically only applied when a user manually checks for updates by clicking the button buried within Settings. However, if end users really wanted to be a part of testing the latest features, the Windows Insider Program is designed exactly for that purpose. Further reading: Windows 10's 'Check for updates' button may download beta code.
Yeah, undermining people's trust in your OS's security update mechanism is great idea. I really hope someone got a raise for this.
F*uking hell. What kind of drugs would any semi-self-respecting developer have to be on to suggest this, and gets it ok'd by multiple managers.
Can we bring public stoning back.
I have a laptop I infrequently use that has Windows 10 (non-Pro) installed on. I boot it up once a month to install updates (so I don't need to wait for update installs when I need to use it for other things) and I always use the "check for updates" button to make sure there aren't any more updates to install. I absolutely do not want beta updates installed on this machine nor would it be good for beta testing them since I hardly use it. This is just giving me more incentive to finally get around to wiping it and putting Linux on it.
What if this signature were clever?
Unfortunately neither is Linux ready for desktop or even worse.
Microsoft wants Windows consumer customers ...to go away. There is no other explanation.
They aren't treating their enterprise customers all that well either, just different forms of abuse.
All previous client versions of Windows had the Professional edition equal to Enterprise in all but the licensing component, otherwise they were the same.
With 10, Professional is closer in features to the Home edition and lacks much of what one expects from a domain attached system and group policy, countless policies that no longer work in any edition except Enterprise.
Then there is the licensing. Holy fuck.
Windows Server is now licensed per core available, and has a minimum purchase of 2 CPUs and 16 core. That isn't 16 core per CPU either, it's 16 total.
So 2 CPUs at 24 core each? You need to purchase 4 licenses at full windows server pricing.
4 CPUs at 12 core each? That's 8 copies of windows you buy for that one installation.
Plus CALs
Want to get that Enterprise license for Windows 10 to use with that fancy server? That's a minimum 10 client license purchase.
So 4 copies of windows server and 10 copies of windows 10, added to $180 per user, paid every year.
Want to expand to two physical server systems? Basically double that.
8 copies of windows server, $180 per user per server, and your 10 copies of Windows 10 still even if you went from 1 to 2 PCs.
That enterprise licensing code I mentioned? It's called KMS, and you don't enter keys or anything like that. :P
You are required to run (and license!) a dedicated KMS server on your domain. Any new OS gets turned up, it requests a license from that server, which sends the request to Microsoft, and it goes on your next months bill pro-rated of course.
It sounds easier than managing license keys, and yea it certainly is, but requires opening a line of credit with Microsoft and sending in about the same amount of corporation registration paperwork as it takes to get a damn EV certificate from godaddy
Oh, and if you don't go the enterprise edition and KMS license route and just stick with Professional and "make due", well then we don't get any more control over windows updates than you do at home.