Microsoft Pledges Windows 10 Will Be 'Awesome' and 'Rock Solid'
Microsoft has taken a beating by critics over this month's security patch, which initially suggested that Windows 10 Technical Preview testers might need to uninstall Office before coming up with a less invasive workaround. Despite that and numerous other frustrations with the Windows 10 Technical Preview, Microsoft reported 1.5 million testers have their hands on a preview version of Windows 10, and nearly a third of them are "highly active." The company also claims that more people are testing it than any beta release of Windows to date.
Apologizing for not having a major new build this month, Gabriel Aul, a data and fundamentals team lead at Microsoft's Operating Systems Group, promised it would be worth the wait. "We're really focused on making the next build something that we hope you'll think is awesome," Aul wrote in a Windows Insider blog post Wednesday. "In fact, just so that we have a *daily* reminder to ourselves that we want this build to be great, we even named our build branch FBL_AWESOME. Yeah, it's a bit corny, but trust me that every Dev that checks in their code and sees that branch name gets an immediate reminder of our goal."
Microsoft recently said it will reveal what's in store in the next build on January 21 and Aul indicated it would have some substantive new features. Though Microsoft didn't release a major new build in December, Aul pointed out the company has issued numerous bug fixes as a result of feedback from the 450,000 active testers. Given the poor reception for Windows 8.x, the record number of testers of the Windows 10 Technical Preview is an encouraging sign.
While the large participation doesn't guarantee Windows 10 will be a hit, a sparse number of testers would obviously lower the odds of success. "That hardcore usage will help us fix all the rough edges and bugs," Aul said, noting his favorite was a "very rare" instance when the OneDrive icon in File Explorer could be replaced by an Outlook icon. So far, he noted, testers have helped discover 1,300 bugs. Aul said while most are minor bugs, Microsoft will implement UX changes based on the feedback as well. Many will be small changes and others will be major.
What's on your wish list for the next build and where does the final release of Windows 10 fit in your plans for 2015?
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 12/19/2014 at 10:54 AM