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Michael_Cherry's avatar
Michael_Cherry
Brass Contributor
May 04, 2017

Confused about Semi-Annual Channel (Pilot) and Semi-Annual Channel (Broad) Timing

So the pilot comes on on a March and September timing. So the first will be 1709.

 

So right now the latest CB is 1703. Does it become the last CBB or the first Semi-Annual Channel (Broad)?

 

Is the approximately four months between the release of a Semi-Annual Branch (Pilot) and the Semi-Annual Branch Channel (Broad)? Or are Semi-Annual Channel (Pilots) promoted to Semi-Annual Channel (Broads) on six month boundaries too?

 

On the 18 months support? Is that measured against both channels or the first (Pilot)?

 

As you throttle release (based on hardware), does 18 months come from the date first released for first hardware platform, or when available to all platforms?

 

Thanks

 

  • Hi Michael, Will this naming convention also be used for ConfigMgr? And as ConfigMgr only has CB versions, will ConfigMgr 1709 (assuming that they will also follow March-September cycle and not the 4-month cycle) be called Semi-Annual Channel "Pilot" too? That may not go down well with customers, running a Pilot version in their production.
  • Those are the new terms that we're working on.  So let me answer that in two different ways, "old" vs. "new" terms:

     

    • New Windows 10 releases are initially considered "Current Branch" releases, to be used for piloting.  After a period of about four months, we'll declare the release as a "Current Branch for Business" release, ready for broad deployment.
    • New Windows 10 releases in the Semi-Annual Channel are initially to be used for pilot deployments.  After about four months, we'll declare that the release is ready for broad deployment.

    Regardless of the terms, the 18 months is for the release, e.g. Windows 10 1703, and that 18 months starts from the date that it was released.

    • Abhimanyu Singh's avatar
      Abhimanyu Singh
      Steel Contributor

      Michael Niehaus, Will the change in terminilogy affect the way configuration.xml is set for ODT?

       

      We have ODT configured for two sets of people with

      channel="current"

       and

      channel="deferred"

      After Sep-2017, will the terms need to be changed to something like

      channel="Semi-Annual Channel (Pilot)"

      ?

      • Abhimanyu Singh's avatar
        Abhimanyu Singh
        Steel Contributor

        Abhimanyu Singh wrote:

        Michael Niehaus, Will the change in terminilogy affect the way configuration.xml is set for ODT?

         

        We have ODT configured for two sets of people with

        channel="current"

         and

        channel="deferred"

        After Sep-2017, will the terms need to be changed to something like

        channel="Semi-Annual Channel (Pilot)"

        ?


         Michael Niehaus - Any clarification on the ODT channel names?

         

    • Markku Jaatinen's avatar
      Markku Jaatinen
      Copper Contributor

      Hi Michael!

       

      Noticed too late that I missed the whole AMA sessions that would have been a very imporant one right now as I need to plan the months and years ahead. Is there any existing blog or presentation that would explain the timeline in a more detailed level forward. I should be able to present the critical timepoints to our Windows 10 migration project where we need to jump from one version to another and all help with timing would be very great.

       

      Also a question (that may have been answered during AMA): is Office switching to 3-6 month update cycles to stay in sync with Windows 10 feature updates? We need that info also to plan for things ahead.

    • Mark Szili's avatar
      Mark Szili
      Iron Contributor

      I think changing the name completely would be more confusing. I like CB and CBB it made sence and it still does. I'm not realy looking forward to having to explain the road map all over again to my peers :(

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