In late May, after the latest Windows 10 update, headlines began circulating that Microsoft's latest operating system would be installed on half of the selected computers in less than a month. Today, after Microsoft's official announcement, we have some more reliable data. But is it reliable? And if it is reliable, can speed affect quality? "The April 2018 Update is officially the fastest version of Windows 10 after reaching 250 million devices, achieving half the time it took the Fall Creators Update," company executives said in a blog post . The company's official announcement also mentions about 700 million active users, which means that Windows 10 build 1803 is now on 35% of all devices that could receive the upgrade. The adoption rate is impressively fast: 5-6 million devices per day and about 40 million computers per week. Of course, Microsoft could give us much more accurate data through telemetry, but the company doesn’t seem to want to share the numbers. In a request from ZDNet’s Ed Bott, the company declined to share those numbers. So we see a company that boasts huge adoption rates and its limitless AI skills, but is completely unwilling to share details. The company only provided numbers for Windows 10’s adoption rate, which fits with the Windows success story. Microsoft’s particular story fuels headlines, and big events like the Build developer conference. But what about the reliability data? Yesterday’s blog post says that early performance of version 1803 is “very positive … with higher satisfaction numbers, fewer known issues, and lower call volume to support teams compared to previous releases of Windows 10.” Here are a few positive statistics, including “20% reduction in system stability issues, and 20% overall reduction in driver stability issues.” I have no reason to doubt that these numbers are real, but they are based on data that Microsoft has chosen. Today and the way the company does it, it is impossible to verify what Microsoft claims. We will simply have to believe the numbers and reject any skepticism and doubt since we cannot verify them. We will mention a feedback post from a Windows user titled “ Patch quality and loss of trust.” The post has received more than 500 upvotes, but it is not visible to everyone. You can only see the post from the Windows 10 Feedback Hub app and only if you are signed in to a Windows Insider account):
Surface devices shouldn't have BSODs with 1803. Enterprise editions shouldn't need metadata revisions. We shouldn't be losing Nics across platforms. We should trust the update process, be happy to install updates the week they come out, and not wait and see what issues arise.
We, the Insider community, your customers, have lost our trust in the update process.
Windows analyst and ZDNet columnist Mary Jo Foley says she's heard noticeably more negative feedback with this version:
I've received more questions and complaints from readers about the April 2018 update than I did for the previous two updates.
Of course, we could say that this was expected, given the steady adoption of Windows 10, which is growing by more than a hundred million computers per year.
But whatever we say, we lack the exact data that Microsoft has. We cannot know if the problems we mention above are limited to just a few devices. There is literally no way to control any of the above.
Let's hope that Microsoft will become more transparent in the data it shares, but I guess hope has nothing to do with the company's marketing department.
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