It has been nearly 30 days since Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile Build 10512 to Windows Insiders for testing and the testers are getting restless.
All you have to do is search Twitter for “gabeaul” and just see the barrage of questions and comments about the lack of an updated build that are tweeted towards the Ring Master. Unfortunately, some of it is not very pleasant either. His patience in replies is tremendous though and he does try to engage folks to help improve things.
Last week, in response to one of the many tweets that are sent his way, Gabe replied with this about the process of getting builds out to testers:
@twmurph @EnejZagar I wish I could give you all a tour inside to explain better, but we just got unlucky w/ timing on a few small things.
— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) September 3, 2015
Well yesterday the Ring Master took to the official Windows Blog, right in the middle of the big Apple Event in fact, to give everyone a peek inside the walls and cubicles of the Windows Team in Redmond. Actually, there are not photos inside of the offices but Aul has shared some info about the process of getting builds through Microsoft’s internal rings and out to Windows Insiders.
Acknowledging that there has been too much time between builds, Aul lets Insiders know they have received a lot of feedback on Build 10512 and some of the known bugs are fixed in current builds.
For instance:
- Mobile hotspot functionality now works
- Quiet Hours\Do Not Disturb has been fixed
- Pinch and zoom in the Maps app now works as expected
- Delay in showing the date and time on the Lock screen has been improved
While progress in addressing bugs is critical to successful development, Windows 10 Mobile is a very complex piece of software so as items get fixed other issues get discovered and some of those stop the builds from being released to Insiders.
When that happens specific steps are then taken to work on those bugs:
- The team responsible for the area diagnoses the problem and fixes the code.
- We then verify that the issue is properly fixed, and doesn’t create any side effects.
- That change then gets integrated into a new build.
- And we send the build with that fix back through our internal rings.
That last step means the process begins again to move an internal build towards release to Insiders. Ultimately, the team wants to get new builds to Windows Insiders but they do need to meet certain quality and functionality standards.
When we release builds to Insiders, even on the Fast ring, we want to make sure people can do everyday activities on their phones – answering phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, installing and using apps, and all of the other basics. We may have some issues (which we’ll note as known issues for builds we flight), but we know we get the best feedback from Insiders who are really able to use these builds normally and then tell us what they think.
Many who tweet at Gabe about the lack of builds seem to believe the team is purposefully sitting on valid builds and just not releasing them.
I do not think this is anywhere near the truth of the matter and that when the team gets a build that is ready for Insiders it will be pushed out to Fast Ring Insiders for immediate install.
Their desire to get a build out soon could even mean they will ignore their own no builds released on Friday mantra that we have seen regularly in the past so I expect we will see a build either today or tomorrow.
What do you think?
