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Microsoft has Delayed SP2, Again
I_am_Rambi writes "According to news.com.com "Microsoft has again delayed a long-awaited update to Windows XP, citing quality concerns. The company had planned to wrap up development this week on Windows XP Service Pack 2, but a Microsoft representative said late Wednesday that the software giant had decided that more work was needed on the update before if could be released to manufacturing." Yea, if 3 out of 5 machines failed to come back up, it needs some polishing."
Microsoft has again delayed a long-awaited update to Windows XP, citing quality concerns.
Wow, now that's what I call a policy change! It's only taken them what... 20 fucking years to realise it might be a good idea to test their products in-house. You know, instead of just releasing the alphas as "stable" 2 minutes after the source hit the compiler and crossing their fingers over in Redmond...
On the other hand I have to wonder just how bad a problem they could possibly have to force them to dig out their debuggers...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
The whole "three out of five machines failed to come back up" after installing SP2 RC2 should not frighten you from trying it.
The original article said quit clearly that the problem they had was that they'd get a bluescreen and "A message stated that 'winserv' was missing."
What the article didn't say was what "winserv" actually is. It's not part of Windows. In fact, it is spyware. Plain and simple.
So the problem, then, with Windows XP SP2 RC2 is that it doesn't work when the operating system has been corrupted beyond repair by spyware that hooks into various DLLs and services in an attempt to prevent itself from being uninstalled.
"imminently"
I heard they were after a "4 out of 5" failure rate.
Working for a broadband provider, I really wasn't looking forward to walking customers thru troubleshooting after their machines were hosed... this delay shoudl buy me enough time to find a new job.
Nice to see a much-hyped rollout delayed as a quality control measure. From Microsoft no less. Step in the right direction PR-wise if you ask me.
Come on, you've got to give Microsoft some credit. They used most of their resources to get Windows ME up and running flawlessly a few years back. They're only now shifting their man-power from the ME development squadron to the XP one.
--
Are you a Chipotle Fan?
Come on now, we can do better than referencing slashdot articles about the last delay and claiming the stats are the same for this delay... Willful self-duping?
Rewriting the entire OS? That might explain why there is such a big gap between XP and when Longhorn is coming out LOL.
Space for rent, inquire within
The last thing I wanted was an SP that didn't work correctly. Hopefully they're going to make it more user-friendly than some of their past SP's.
If a bunch of machines won't boot -- even if it's the fault of the developers of third-party software as we've seen with faulty drivers impacting Windows 98 -- people will be slow to adopt what is perhaps the most critical software patch the Internet has seen.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
I'm sort of glad, since this delay will hopefully minimize problems when our students return to the dorms.
Now how will I protect my machine when I am forced to boot into windows to play Duke Nukem Forever?
3 out of 5 machines failed to come back up
I guess MS was right when they said that Win XP SP2 is more recure. You can't infect a computer that's down.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
Also gets rid of the horrible tagline "It is where IT is", egads!
- Seth
They want to get it right the first time. I congratulate them for doing the Right Thing and making sure they deliver a rock solid Service Pack for the millions of XP users out there.
Before the slashdot editors and crowd crow over this delay, just remember the 503 errors and flakiness this site has experienced since "maintenance" was performed. Don't throw stones in glass houses, kids.
Slashdot Moderation: From positive to terrible in 2 "insightful" posts.
Think god for small mircales...
The code knocking out the l33t lamerz copies with stolen corporate codes is problably not knocking out 100% of the stolen installations yet.
Let them take as long as they need if it helps improve security and stability. Why would you want a release that is unstable?
4 out of 5 dentists recommend Linux for their patients who chew data.
I uninstalled it from my test Athlon 64 after lots of my stuff simply "didn't work"
Is there a title for the pack?
:P
SP2 : Duke Nukem Forever
Next they will claim the source code was stolen by hackers and delay it 6 months even though it was ready to ship
I like muppets.
...Linux and OS X pick up three. If they don't get their house in order soon, they are going to have more to worry about than browser marketshare.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
Green = Greedy. :D
I think that's a
I belive ALT+F4 will get rid of it.
Mod the parent up guys .. make the world a green place again .. this place looks like matrix has already taken over our world!
http://hireadesigner.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0 4/08/05/1742224&tid=201&tid=109
Grab the bookmarklet, and with one click you never have to ask for the link again:
http://www.electricstate.com/slashdot.php
(sorry for the shameless whoring.)
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
I refuse to believe this. You must be spouting FUD, you astroturfer!
How dare you imply that something is not M$ Windoze fault, heretic? Everyone knows that Winbloze boxen are terrible and crash, and GNU/Linux boxen own.
Get out of here, M$ shill!
They are too busy Installing security patches on their freshly installed machines.
Every time i have to test some web page on ie (once a week) I must install some new security patch, I never freshly booted my Windows machine without having to install a new patch.
The tagline is "It is what IT is." and it's either bad as you say, or it's a reference to a hilarious Monty Python sketch in which case the tagline totally rules.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
most people will run anything they're asked to.
Moo.
I read in the paper this morning that SP2 will be doing things like turning on the WinXP firewall by default and gawd knows what else. Does anyone know if we'll be able to easily see all of its proposed "helpful" actions and disable the ones we don't want? For instance, I already have a hardware firewall, so I don't need the software firewall to be enabled.
SourceHosting.net, LLC
Ready. Set. Code.
http://www.sourcehosting.net/
My Install of SP2 RC1 caused explorer.exe to crash on start up. I also took about 10mins for XP to boot and login. There is no spyware/trojans on my computer.
... when id releases Doom III... oh wait...
"So the problem, then, with Windows XP SP2 RC2 is that it doesn't work when the operating system has been corrupted beyond repair by spyware that hooks into various DLLs and services in an attempt to prevent itself from being uninstalled."
So if, say, 1/3 of all WinXP boxes out there are currently infected with spyware (probably a conservative guess), then 1/3 of all users applying XP SP2 would crash?
I'd say that makes it Microsoft's problem. Users aren't going to care, all they will see is that before XP SP2 their system worked, and after it didn't.
stealing the code from the iPhoto 4.0.2 update.
..I mean anyone else remember service pack 2 for Windows NT 4.0? Talk about run for the hills day when that came out.
I'd prefer they get their stuff together instead of rushing to market. Though personally the service pack thing to me is more of a PITA than patching the various subsystems and then creating a 'roll up' service pack vs. the service pack being the 'holy grail' update all at once breaking/changing things willy nilly (at least that is how it seems some days)
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
On the welcome screen, it tells you what you can do to get Windows XP Service Pack 2.
It doesn't say wait and pray.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
"In other news Microsoft has announced that WinXP SP2 has been internally renamed "Longhorn" to more closely coincide with their projected release schedules."
This is something I am not rushing to put on my XP.
I will probably wait an additional amount of time equal to how long it is taking to get SP2 out to make sure their constant silent updates to SP2 are all ironed out and finally made stable.
Im thinking by then Longhorn should be near if not already released.
HA! This is a duplicate!
Oh, wait, it was delayed again?!
change it.slashdot.org for www.slashdot.org in the url
wibble wibble.
Every 'softie I've heard from who has seen the Windows code base has said the same thing: it is a labyrinthine collection of objects and subsystems that nobody really understands at a high level. It's actually a miracle that the whole thing builds in the first place. So when they change a few things for a service pack, a dozen other things break.
Microsoft deserves these problems. Their software is too tightly integrated. The benefit of having highly modular software is that problems tend to not spread beyond a single module or subsystem.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
I sure hope that SP2 gets released by Sept. 7. That's when the girls come back to school here. That's when they bring their spyware-infected, unpatched systems to school.
I feel for the schools starting before us (most of them). Patching a medium speed laptop can take HOURS now. Hopefully MS will be able to get this out soon because otherwise, patching incoming systems is going to take twice as long...
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
or more humorously: http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/05/1 742224
That way they at least can see the http requests as sending a message...
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/05/174222 4&tid=201&tid=109
Trying to be fair-minded about updates and what we'll call minor rev level releases to the OS (remember all the waiting for Godot that occurred for Linux 2.4.0 and 2.6.0), I think it is a good thing if MS doesn't release SP2 until it feels comfortable that it's ready and secure.
The key difference, of course, is that knowledgeable and concerned XP sysadmins might want to expedite patches to their systems faster than MS would like and be willing to suffer other problems and risks that MS doesn't feel would be good for the general sysadmin population to experience.
Now, if the Windows source tree and nightly builds were available, then those admins would be free to update at their own risk, an option they don't have because the OS source must remain under proprietary lock and key.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Wow that's a really long time when you ad on the 6 months that user's have to wait to read the reports on whether or not it has spyware or will reconfigure your system for you to be more "compatable" with DRM.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
Out of all the software compainies in the world, Microsoft is the company that has the resources to build and maintain software right. They definitely have the talent. I think the issue here is big corporation politics. Microsoft should put more of an investment into their public image (at least try to get an image comparable to lets say Google). Sure, it may not give them as big as returns pumping more people into the XP camp (service pak 2) and less into lets say Long horn, but get step one right before going to step two. The trust they will gain by the public would earn them money in the future...probably more than their current practices.
Nuttles
Christian and proud of it
Seems like you just have to remove the "it." prefix in the URL then it comes out okay, "http://it.slashdot.org/.." to "http://slashdot.org/.." for example.
People are installing SP2 internally all over the place and I certainly haven't heard of "3 out of 5" computers dying. In fact I haven't heard anything bad at all.
I have been running SP2 since RC1 with no problems myself.
It's nice to see comments like these more often on /.
The Microsoft bashing is fun, and sometimes needed, but when they finally do something right, we should acknoledge that!
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
That's damn hilarious. Too bad it's offtopic or I would have modded you up.
Ha ha ha
This one is my favorite -
"If you're like me you won't remember alot of what you did here - and that can be a good thing"
GWB talking to Students at (Yale or Harvard) which ever school he went to.
Does anyone actually think 3 of 5 systems have this particular spyware installed and that's why SP2 is delayed?
Yeah, since when did Microsoft worry about quality issues?
Sheesh
No one has ever been able to accuse me of being a Microsoft apologist. I've thrown my fair share of vitriol their way, but I always said what I felt was justified based on their actions.
In this case, I have to congratulate Microsoft. Yeah, I said it... They deserve a pat on the back for finally realizing, at least in this one instance, that it doesn't pay to release crap software. I doubt this is the beginning of a trend or anything, but for this they deserve a pat on the back.
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
Ok, so it's been delayed again... So what? I mean, what's the big rush? Security updates are still coming through windowsupdate whenever they're required. Isn't it better that Microsoft take their time with the service pack and make it solid, rather than they releasing it unfinished?
Come on now - you have to give microsoft some credit. This update is a major overhaul to the OS. Look at kernel updates for linux. You have to be careful as hell, making sure all of your drivers are still compatible, libs all still work, etc etc. SP2 is along the lines of a linux kernel upgrade.
You really have to give MS some credit because all of their drivers will be working with SP2, as well as most software. Sure, linux upgrades might come out more often, but you have to admit - actually applying them is a lot more intensive than simply clicking 'next, next, next, yes i will reboot now.'
Anyway, I think people are WAY to hard on MS. For going almost 15 years now and barely breaking backwards compatibility, they seriously deserve more credit than the slashdot crowd gives them. Good luck to em with this new upgrade.
What about all the times new releases of the Linux kernel have been delayed by months? Oh, we convienitly forgot about that!
On point though, I think that it should frighten people from trying it.
And that's why they're not releasing it yet; because average folk shouldn't use it yet.
Funny how that works....
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
Our product does content updates automagically. We'll get a lotta calls if this feature is blocked by the default firewall.
"Microsoft has again delayed a long-awaited update to Windows XP, citing quality concerns
So? Who's going to notice?
It's interesting to note that the 'Automatic Updates' service must be set to 'Automatic' and be running in order for Windows Update to work through IE. Even if you choose not to use Automatic Updates (as I have), you *must* have the service running all the time for Windows Update to work (or change it to Automatic each time before going to Windows Update in IE). Rather annoying.
I've run a few RC builds of XP SP2 on 2 different machines.
:)
:)
Configuring the firewall is _easy_.
I too have real firewalls. I leave the SP2 one turned on as well, because it hasn't gotten in the way of anything i do with the machines (yet). I did add a port or two to the allow list, and thats it.
Remember, defense in depth. Having every XP machine tightened up out of the box as much or more as a default linux install is a good thing.
But, you can turn the firewall features off _very_ easily.
I really like the popup blocker and other IE changes in SP2 as well. I've stopped using proxomitron. I see inline ads where prox used to just put [Ad] but that doesn't bother since the super obnoxious stuff is gone. Also, the way IE handles ActiveX controls is _much_ nicer than it used to be - no being asked 23049 times per page to dismiss modal dialogs.
finally, i wouldn't get too worked up over the headline that XP SP2 is delayed. I have some inside info on the delay.. and its (so far) not worth the sensational press its getting at sites with.. ABM slants
People need to be honest. If MS said there's a problem and released it anyway, the ABM camp would grill them for releasing shitty unfinished product. By holding it for a while longer, MS gets grilled for delaying its release (with sideline comments about them being incompetant or SP2 being vapor or what have you). To the ABMer, MS can do nothing right.
(ABM = "Anything But Microsoft"
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
"3 out of 5 machines failed to come back up"
We've just recieved word that 3 out of 5 Windows systems use a commonly pirated CD-KEY.
DeMe
I've been waiting for the Office 2004 Professional Edition for Mac because it is supposed to come with Virtual PC 7, which is supposed to use SP2. I need it because it seems like the computer industry has been cutting support for the Mac since OS X. Hardware companies are dropping support and software companies are releasing their Mac versions without all the features they have on their Windows versions. First I thought I'd just have to wait for Office 2004 to come out. Then it came out, but not the Professional Edition, because of the Virtual PC thing, so I have to wait more. Even if I wanted to get a PC with windows, I'd have to wait. Why buy one and end up having to pay for an upgrade? That's the thing with monopolies- they charge what they want and make you wait as long as they want.
That's a stupid comment. Every OS needs patching as bugs are discovered and fixed.
Doh. Is this what a "troll" is?
Get your own free personal location tracker
Am I going to install SP2 on my Windows system? Absolutely. Am I going to get it from Microsoft? Absolutely not. Within days of release of SP2, there will, of course, be pirated releases of Windows with SP1 and SP2 rolled in. I have an XP license, but I honestly prefer to keep it sitting around to ease my guilt while I download the OS anew. Say what you will ethically, but wiping my system and installing one of those, I've consistently had a more stable system.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Remember IBM & the operating system for their 360 mainframe?
It finally reached such a state of inscrutable complexity that IBM
froze it, and told their customers that whatever bugs they found,
they would have to live with and work around. They couldn't
fix it any more, because each time they fixed one bug, they
introduced two more...
I'm thinking about Windoze, and backwards compatibility
requirements, and various hardware configurations, and the
number of engineers Microsoft has with their fingers in the pie,
and software written in an inherently unsafe language like
C/C++...
I wonder when Microsoft will discover that their Windoze
monster has crossed the line into uncontrollable unmaintainable
complexity. At this point, they'll never be able to get it to work
reliably.
I work for a large company that makes Multifunction photocopier/printer/fax/scanner office equipment.
Our machine can receive print data via a few protocols such as: TCPIP:port 9100, LPR/LPD, SMB
We even offer full Linux support for PS printing (very cool I use it every day).
What I need to know; will this new service-pack break XP's ability to print?
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Wouldn't it be fantastic if the SP2 updater would first run Ad-Aware or an equivalent and kill all the spywarer on the machine before installing the actual updates? After rebooting, users would be astonished by how quickly Windows would work.
'Holy Crap Maude, my WeatherBug is gone but this thing shore is runnin quick!'
"But, you can turn the firewall features off _very_ easily."
You mean like I've always been able to do in OS X? A simple toggle next to each service?
"I really like the popup blocker and other IE changes in SP2 as well"
You mean like I've always been able to do in Safari and Firefox?
I'm not trolling, but expounding features that I've enjoyed elsewhere for years reminds me of why I avoid MS products as much as I can - the other options allow me to enjoy now what MS might deliver long after the fact.
Well actually, the delay is because the dev-team over at MS is playing their downloaded version of DOOM3 instead of developing SP2...
Doh. Is this what a "troll" is? :)
Um, yes.
where is the link that makes this awful color green ?
If you can't get the link, just wait until the nausea makes you projectile vomit green all over your monitor.
I'm taking bets - which is the next to be released: XP Service Pack 2, or the next Debian stable (Sarge) ?
I'm waiting until SP2 for SP2 comes out.
Yeah, SP2 to XP is to include real multisessioning to Windows! Not just "switch user", one works, one waits, but true "two users at once"! Just like in original UNIX in on PDP-11!
Well, almost. The catch word is "two".
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The thing I don't understand is why it takes so long to prevent all machines from booting....
it's Microsoft... you can't polish a turd
If you must use a cliche, you could at least take the time to understand it so that you can use it appropriately. It's certainly possible to polish a turd; the point is that when you are done polishing, it's still a turd.
For homework, please give an example of the correct use for each of the following cliches:
Welcoming our new overlords
1, 2, 3, Profit
Russia, In soviet
Wake me when it gets to 3.11
For extra credit, create an analogy between software and the automobile industry.
Students scoring less than 70% will be on turd-polishing duties for the next three weeks.
It closes all ports and you must place an executable on the exclusion list in order to even be able to RUN it.
Nice security features which break a whole hell of a lot of things. Quicken. Yahoo! Messenger. A host of others. One of my associates who's a certified engineer (who's not just a paper MCSE...) told me that he put it on a test machine yesterday and it took him over three hours to be able to even use it on the Internet. His contacts within MS (which I consider relatively reliable since I know whom he's talking about over in MS' Las Colinas support center...) said they're at ove 80% call volume for the enterprise customers who got it automatically yesterday anyway.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Listen, some guy who knows someone who ran windows once said that 3 out of 5 systems didn't work right.
Strangely, it's the same 3 people who say 'boxen' all the time that seem to have the most problems.
When Apple shifted from OS 9 to OS X, they built in the Classic application to "emulate" the old OS. It's fast enough, once you have it already booted, and they gave all their developers enough information to port their apps to OS X without too much trouble. This allowed them to adopt an entirely different operating system while still preserving some kind of backward compatibility.
So why does Microsoft take an entirely different approach to the same problem? Every major OS change insists on building on the last OS, to maintain as much compatibility as possible. Okay, I understand that there a LOT of old Windows code out there, some of which dates back to Win3.1, and compatibility is necessary. But surely they could take the jump, redesign Windows from scratch like a genuinely modern OS should be done, and build in some kind of "emulation" for older apps?
Why, in short, is Microsoft so reluctant to dump the DOS core of their OS and start over from scratch? I mean, it could hardly take them any longer than they've already spent on Longhorn....
It's called "Linux"!
MS'ers are saying it's robust for the OS itself, but that it's going to mess up a bunch of things because everyone and their dog was relying on the loopholes in past versions. And it's supposed to get worse with the next security upgrades I've heard. People may not have their machines die on them (word is that the virii, trojans, and spyware's causing the dying machines...) but you're going to have fun trying to use the apps you do have without a BUNCH of tinkering around with registry edits and all- and some apps may need a patch from the vendor for varying reasons because they're "fixing" a LOT of the OS with this service pack
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I think SP2 should be given the legendary release date of:
"When it's done"
NT was designed to be a microkernel and a hardware abstraction layer with different environments such as POSIX and DOS. The original NT came out for i386, Alpha, and Power PC. Grab an old NT4 CD and check out the directories on it. This all changed, and we now have everything in kernel space like Linux.
I have been waiting for SP2 because I need to reload all of the PCs at my facility with a customized corp install of XP. So far, the SP2 RC's have worked well when slipstreamed in. I just need to have a final SP2 so that we can have a solid baseline.
I just hope that when they do finally release it, it works smoothly.
And there is no stinkin' way I am going to actually UPGRADE to sp2 on a machine. Fresh reloads for everyone!
Thats pretty funny, cause cnn.com was reporting that the release was coming soon.
"The most reliable news network"... pfft. (I blame Micrsoft rather than CNN... CNN is pretty good for news.)
Insert Sig Here
I'm impressed with myself that I managed to read far enough down to find this comment before I went blind from the horrible horrible "IT" color scheme. Does slashdot have some vendetta against the IT world?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
MS has also pulled the 64bit XP trial until "mid-august".
because everyone and their dog was relying on the loopholes in past versions.
My dog is friends with Tux, thankyouverymuch!
Can we let this spurious meme drop? Any reference to XPSP2 seems to automatically invoke "3 out of 5". This makes us look guilty of spreading FUD.
it really doesn't matter if you're one of the people who gets their computer hosed by installing SP2. Also, such computers are hardly 'corrupted beyond repair', just run adaware/spybot. I agree that users need to take some responsiblity, but at the same time Microsoft should include better warnings/suggestions pre-install (i.e., something like 'if you have viruses/spyware, this may kill your computer, do a back up first you nitwit'). But I guess marketing wouldn't like that (since nobody likes to have to tell customers to back up their data, it's like telling a spoiled brat to clean up his toys).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Rag on 'em for security problems.
Rag on 'em for buggy beta service packs.
Rag on 'em when they delat the buggy beta service pack for some final tweaking so that it doesn't suck.
You act like MS is hurting people by not releasing their buggy service pack when they loosly claimed they maybe kinda would.
I'd rather have it come out late and bug free. Or as close to bug-free as it's going to get.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I knew this sort of crap was going to occur the day heard that MS bought Connectix Virtual Machine Technology and therefore VPC.
Do not touch -Willie
Way to go Microsoft! I must say I admire their dedication to producing quality software...
Roll your own update.
r eam_01.htm
. htm
...etc
TheElderGeek.com (http://www.theeldergeek.com/) has several instructions available:
Slipstreamed XP SP1a install (which slipstreams SP1a into a XP installation)
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipst
Slipstreamed XP Rollup (which slipstreams the update rollup for SP1a into the XP SP1a installation, and also has instructions on how to add other updates and programs into the setup)
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstream_06
Roll your own. Add extra programs to the CD.
I've added the following to mine, so I don't have to swap CDs:
AdAware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Kerio Personal Firewall
Zonealarm Firewall (For end users - less complicated than Kerio)
Trillian
GAIM
DirectX9.0b
WMP9
Winamp
Seriously - roll your own. Very useful knowledge, can speed up the process in the long run, especially if you do multiple installs.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Yeah, the story was only 20 minutes old and I had to tell somebody I figured I had the Karma to burn =-) Of course this will probably get modded down, too, AIIC
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
That the reason everyone is on MSFT's case is because they set a release date, and are only NOW changing it, only a few weeks at most away from release day.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
bitch when MS releases buggy patches, bitch when it takes more time to fix them before release.
Its ANYBODY besides Bush & Gates in 04!
How many times have they delayed the SP? No really, I've lost the count.... The one thing I remember is that the first version was planned before 2004, and it was going to have support for the AMD64. The one real thing they've to do is to force automatic updates and enable the firewall always by default.
You argue if they deliver and you argue if they don't. So what if they slipped the product again. I rather have it slip than having a shitty product on my pc.
Isn't quality control sort of about... erm, fixing these bigs?
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I've said it befre and I'll say it again:
Joe Sixpack won't install it.
It's the same Joe Sixpack that's running stock IE6 on XP and stock IE5 on Win2k and stock IE3 on Win98.
It's the same Joe Sixpack that I get calls from at least 3 times a week saying "my Norton isn't working right."
Joe Sixpack doesn't give a shit about patching his browser or installing a service pack, all he want's to do is check his email and the ESPN site and surf for porn.
This is _fact_.
I deal with Joe Sixpack every day for a living. Day after day I see machines that are running stock installs full of whatever has been "clicky-clicky'd" on.
Want to clean off Joe Sixpack's virus/spyware laden laptop? All you have (legally) is a "system restore CD" or a hidden restore partition on the drive to do so - which takes it back to a stock install ready and waiting to be stricken again. That is... unless you also want to spend 2-3 more hours installing patch after patch and rebooting 37 times to get it up to snuff. Multiply that time exponentially if using a dial-up. I charge by the hour, and most folks aren't willing to spend the $$ for my extra time to do that, and they obviously have no intention of doing it themselves.
Microsoft COULD HAVE done the world a favor just by turning on their update tool by default - so people might actually know they need updates at all, and might actually install them then. What's the point of issuing all these patches if people don't know they need them? Jeez... even cars have idiot lights.
I honestly thank Microsoft for not doing it though - because that pays my bills.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
Here's a company with more money than God and tens of thousands of worker bees available to deal with what I would consider catastrophically insecure software.
And they have the balls to say the you're rolling the dice by running OSS software. Well, while my Windows 2000 and XP boxes have been repeatedly open to hacking attempts for long periods with no fix from M$ for some issues, my Redhat enterprise server machines have been regularly and seemlessly updated against all publicly acknowledged threats.
I mean, jeezus! They've got complete control over the source, money to burn, employees available, and they STILL can't secure the product(s) that provide the lion's share of their income. To add insult to injury, their products are so pervasive and so insecure, that WE ALL have to endure constant barrages of spam and hacking attempts from compromised machines running Microsoft software, the internet is choked with junk packets...what to do?
Which model would YOU rather have your business rely on?
Hopefully the SP2 delays are giving the VPC team more time to test, tweak, and polish their emulator itself. After all, what else could they spend their time working on? I doubt they're the very set of programmers that work on the Mac version of MSN Messenger. Heck, they're probably all ex-Connectix engineers anyway.
I have been running my primary development machine on XP Service Pack 2 Beta 2 with no detectable problems whatsoever for about 2 weeks. I have also installed it on several test machines of various types and a Virtual PC instance with no issues. I wanted to make sure the project I am lead on had no issues with SP 2. The only things I have found were what I expected, firewall warnings, dynamic content warnings, and a few minor bugs that I could have left alone.
I am fairly careful about downloads, so I probably do not have the spyware program 'winserv' state earlier, so I cannot speak of a problem with it. It does not show up with my spyware detection program or in my task list of running processes.
The explanation I have heard for the delay is that they wanted to make sure ISV's had a chance to test against it so there would be no issues. This could be an excuse, but my own experience has been positive. I think the 3 out of 5 number is anti-Microsoft FUD, the kind usually spread by Linux fanatics.
Since it is still in beta, I cannot recommend it for average users. However, any technically above-competent Windows user should feel comfortable in trying it (after an appropriate back-up that should be done with all OS upgrades).
--- igiveup ---
Yeah gods man, DO NOT EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT. The ME team was taken out and shot and buried. Even suggesting that somehow they returned from their eternal damnation is not something to joke about.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I would much prefer for Microsoft (or any other company, for that matter) to delay a product until it's perfect, rather than rush it out while there's still too many bugs.
I heard a saying once, "Beware the even-numbered service packs." Looks like Microsoft's actually trying to change that.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
Enough with the hacks. Give me propper CSS/XHTML implemenation of Slashdot. That was if don't like the way it looks I just just apply my own stylesheet and be happy.
RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^it\.slashdot\.org$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://slashdot.org$1
you had me at #!
Shouldn't this be modded "Informative" rather than "Funny"? Stupid mods.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
There is only one simple solution that would be good for everybody.
Clean Install from new Windows XP edition
Clean install is the only 100% secure way to remove all viruses/trojans/spyware/malware.
Microsoft should release Windows XP SE (Second Edition, Secure Edition or Sp2 Edition).
This way Microsoft will finally have the upgrade version they have promised to the buyers 3 years ago. You know license expire for 3 years and new should be bought. (I'm not sure, but there may also have clause/option for free upgrades. I don't see why not, as long as you pay for it every 3 years).
I don't have WinXP, but from what I heard the SP2 is about 300MB archive. I think that WinXP is installed from single CDrom disk (am I wrong?). So SP2 is not far from a new Windows version.
If M$ don't do that, they are doomed. I think they wont do it:)
Windows XP Service Pack 2 has been Released To Manufacturing