Who Uses Windows Server Insider Builds?

hsimmon · January 26

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-server-insiders/announcing-windows-server-preview-build-26040/m-p/4040858

I am curious about who would even use a Windows Server insider build. I assume Microsoft needs feedback on these builds from the community like any other operating system. I'm thinking that this is mostly homelab users who are part of the Windows Server insider program. It seems silly to me that sysadmins would ever use an insider build of Windows Server on production hardware. Maybe in a sandbox.

Microsoft even states it in their terms of use "This is pre-release software - it is provided for use "as-is" and is not supported in production environments." So where do they even get feedback for this?

I was part of the standard insider build program for Windows 11 for a little while. The amount of functionality breaking bugs made it borderline frustrating and impossible to use. I couldn't imagine using it as a daily driver personally let alone production server builds.

Kilrah · January 26

16 minutes ago, hsimmon said:

It seems silly to me that sysadmins would ever use an insider build of Windows Server on production hardware.

Not in production of course, but a decent work environment will have test setups to see what will come / break in future releases, prepare for them,...

manikyath · January 26

i'd say that if your business relies on a sizable deployment of windows server installs, it doesnt make sense to not have some test stuff with insider builds.