Have you noticed the lack of Service Packs for Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2?
We had Service Pack 1 more than 2 years ago and since then just a constant stream of updates. Windows 7 desktops are going to be around for a very long time replacing XP as the de facto Windows version to use in corporate desktops. By the time they expire in 2020(!) hopefully the newer versions of Windows / Android / IOS + current unknown OSs will provide a new paradigm that is better (I have my doubts).
The number of updates every month has stayed steady meaning there is a myriad of updates for a 'fresh' Windows 7 SP1 install. This was brought home the other week when a newly arrived Dell Laptop installed updates and rebooted for a good half an hour. Keeping baselines of updates is becoming unpractical with this number of updates going on. This is a real problem for servers where you want them all patched to the same level without going through a WSUS high frequency update route.
In the past on internal servers we used to apply Service Packs as the building block of Windows build level. If there was a specific reason to apply a patch we would apply it. More often than not it would more likely be a version of the .Net framework linked to an application like SQL Server. Most internal servers are showing vast lists of individual patches required. When servers can obtain typical uptimes of around a year I don't like putting on non required patches and rebooting them every month or so unless there is a very good reason to do so. Rebooting them once per year for a Service Pack seems ideal to me.
The cadence / patch mechanism of Windows releases has changed dramatically over the years. Remember computer magazines with attached disks of NT4 SP3, SP4 or SP6a as a mechanism of distributing patches! Since then we had Windows 2000 which had 4 Service Packs, Server 2003 which brought in the R2 OS refresh cycle, 2008, then 2008 R2 and now 2012 / R2.
If you look at the release dates of recent software we have Server 2012 R2 in 2013 just a year after Server 2012. With Google and Apple adding new features and not just patches with almost every update every few months. MS have been forced to follow suit. I am running Windows 8.1 on my laptop and it is more a Service Pack on Windows 8 than it is a new release (I know there are new features, well hidden by the dumbed down GUI), at least the 8.1 gives a clue to the lack of fundamental changes. But with Server 2012 R2 a whole raft of new server features have been added. It could be the new update regime without Service Packs is better suited to Windows Azure with fully automated patching or they just build new base images containing the patches already incorporated for cloning on a schedule. It might be that Windows 7 / 2008 R2 will never see another Service Pack - in which case installing a new Windows 7 machine could install literally hundreds of updates to bring it up to date. Maybe keeping base images with incorporated selected updates will be the way to go. At the moment I would be happy to install a Windows 7 SP1 desktop and let it catch up on updates using WSUS plus a daily reboot over a few days. With mainstream support for Windows 7 ending in 2015 we really could do with Service Pack by then!
SQL Server and Exchange Server do (currently) have a steady and structured release system of updates and Service Packs making patching easier to plan. It is a pity that Exchange updates have been such poor quality of late. I would rather run reliable old software than up to date software with broken features myself.
Maybe the days of Service Packs are gone. Get a 'new' OS every year instead! I have heard little from MS on the subject but it must be discussed frequently. If so it makes life just a little harder for on premise installations...
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