Good to see they're going back to a simpler branching/linear model. The combinatorial explosion of versions to test/support with 20+ independent patches PER MON

Good to see they're going back to a simpler branching/linear model. The combinatorial explosion of versions to test/support with 20+ independent patches PER MONTH must be/have been ridiculous. They've been moving this way for a while - see SQL Server, Sharepoint, etc. Pros: * Hopefully faster install times / smaller downloads * Hopefully better tested/tested together releases. * No longer running into bugs that have already been patched because an administrator thought "we don't use feature X!" and have suppressed the update. * Easier to say your software requires "Windows 7 SP1 with October 2016 CU" than "Windows 7 SP1 with KB1234 and KB124213" - if you could figure out exactly what patches you needed anyway! * Easier to verify patch status - hopefully they'll put a version number somewhere easy to find Cons: * Harder to track down regressions to a particular patch. Note that sometimes issues were cause by particular combinations anyway so this should reduce that type of bug. * Can't avoid specific regressions * Can't avoid feature changes you don't like - not that you really could forever under that old model either. * Larger download times, if you were being selective with updates. Much Hope.