We need production releases not just beta releases

[joshudson]

Summary of the new feature / enhancement

Ultimately, the problem with OpenSSH shipping with windows is it's way behind and not being updated.

People still hit #1322 (largely without knowing what it is) because the Windows packages are still behind and still have this bug in it.

If they know what it is, the problem's worse. The beta releases become the production releases.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

Ship production releases from GitHub when ready. Looking at the current status of stuff this should be something like once a year.

[maertendMSFT]

I answered a similar question in this discussion (#2136).

Generally, the releases on GitHub are marked "beta" as we cannot meet the servicing requirements to support each release. They are provided "as is" and we maintain a best effort to fix and service them as necessary. This is not the case for the Windows released versions, which are covered by Microsoft/Windows support.

The quality of the release is not the reasoning for the "beta" tag, and the quality of the release is the same of that is shipped in Windows.

I know this is generally not the answer folks want when asking this question. Know that we are always trying to improve the avenues that Win32-OpenSSH is delivered and supported, but I do not have more information that I can share at this time.

[joshudson]

The problem is the Windows releases aren't being serviced. They're only getting security patches.

[mgkuhn]

If your actual question is “When will #1322 be fixed in Windows?”, have you contacted Microsoft Support? They will have their own bug tracking systems there, and if the question is never asked there by users, fixes might not get prioritized. (I don't know how that works specifically within MSFT, but I have seen in many other IT organizations that you often can only get the attention of management if you go through the official support channels, where they count how many people have reported a problem, otherwise it doesn't show up on their “dashboards”.)

[joshudson]

You have just told me, "Pay $500 to get a non-answer." My experience with Microsoft Support involving product bugs is a zero percent effectiveness rating. Even accessibility bugs don't get fixed that way.

[LukeCarrier]

@mgkuhn Josh is right -- Microsoft support is a byzantine labrynth that is simply not accessible to and ill equipped to serve customers who aren't thousands-strong enterprises. #1322 has gone unaddressed in "stable" shipping Windows builds for five years. The fix has now been available here for over a year.

How long does it take to copy some files into Windows release builds? Is the issue the amount of QA involved because of a lack of test coverage?

I do not understand Microsoft's desire to ship known broken code in their products provided the bugs are documented. Why not fix it?

[Blackclaws]

I just ran into this issue for the first time and boy is it disheartening to learn that the openssh version in windows isn't actually being kept current with this repo.

Since I think many of the contributors/maintainers actually do have a link to Microsoft, it seems far easier to go through this channel and actually clear up how we can get a faster release cadence then for us users to go and contact microsoft.

[mgkuhn]

@rtollert recently posted a list of which Windows version comes with which OpenSSH for Windows release, as well as a neat Linux bash script to prepare such a list by mounting each of the relevant Windows installer ISOs.

[maertendMSFT]

Appreciate the feedback/comments, this is 100% on our radar and in focus for us.

While I am still limited in what we are able to disclose publicly, we are looking at both removing the beta tag from our releases on GitHub and updating Windows more frequently. We understand the frustration around the versions that are available in Windows and support.

Expect more information or an update later this year.