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Windows XP SP3 Postponed Until 2008
Rockgod quotes an article saying "With Microsoft now saying that its next major service pack for Windows XP will not ship until 2008, some Windows users are wondering whether the software upgrade will ever be released." and then later "Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, agrees that Microsoft may very well decide to drop XP Service Pack 3. "It absolutely could happen. Microsoft is under no obligation to produce any service packs, ever," he explains. "They feel that because these fixes are available through the auto-update that there's less need to create a service pack."
> Microsoft is under no obligation to produce any service packs, ever
In fact, I would love for them to completely stop. It would encourage more people to reverse engineer the kernel, or better yet, switch. (Notice that last word is lower case.)
Solomon Chang
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
Provide an update rollout? Really, have you seen the massive amount of updates required to apply against SP2 on a fresh install?
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
The whole SP thing is a throwback to the bad old days of 28.8k modems and CDs by post. Now we can add the fixes as they come along so why bother with a monolithic chunk of code that must be a testing nightmare for MS as well as corporate end users?
The only thing I can see that will be missed is that SPs often slipped in a new feature or two but no doubt someone somewhere thought it would be good business to stop that and insist people plonk down the $ for Vista. As per usual with suits, that's short term thinking. If you're being obliged to do a full OS upgrade you may as well consider other options like Linux.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Why bother at all? The next breathe M$ makes is that Vista is going to be out very soon since RC2 is out and is the final release before vista goes gold?
"They feel that because these fixes are available through the auto-update that there's less need to create a service pack."
Yes, much more fun for all those admins at high secure locations (without internet access). It is almost impossible to install a new Windows machine using XP, since you will have to do a lot of updating after the installation itself. Even if you have a dedicated server this is a real pain, since you will have to wait for all the tiny updates to complete. It's hard enough to get Internet Explorer or DirectX installed as it is.
And those with only a modem will really enjoy this. Previously you just bought a CD-ROM with the service pack. Not anymore it seems.
Microsoft will not produce SP3 because of very simple reason: they want Vista to replace XP. It's cash, a lot of it.
Everybody knows that Win XP has more holes than swiss cheese. And it started to get Joe User. So they will upgrade just because of being scared of 'all those viruses, you know...'. So they'll be effectively forced to buy new system. And Miscosoft will be able to withdraw support for XP faster - which is good for them - they don't earn any cash from supporting it and it costs a lot.
I think they'll not make the same mistake like with Win2000 that is still quite alive and kicking because of good compatibility with XP and SP3 they released for it.
We can expect that Vista will quite fast become quite 'not exactly' compatible with XP. And without SP3 situation will get only worse. That's called strategy. On a big scale.
"an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often, quite often, picturesque liar" - Mark Twain
Sounds like what happened with Windows 2000. Service pack 5 never materialised, but a security roll-up package was released to somewhat satisfy major customers. My guess is that the same thing will happen with Windows XP. A security roll-up package will be released at some point because the number of post-SP2 patches is approaching insane amounts. But other than that, Microsoft will be far, far too busy pushing Longhorn Server out of the door.
This has to do with WGA. With a service pack, you can just burn a cd, install Windows XP without the network plugged and then upgrade the installation to the latest SP without having to connect to the network.
M$ doesn't want you to be able to do that. They want you to use the network updater so they can test the validity of your license.
Whether you are in a highly secure setting without internet access or behind a modem in a 3rd world country, they don't care. They want to check your license.
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
Unless you are building that box in a lab which is ALREADY infected.
When I was in college we had our own removal hard drives and it wasn't that uncommon for the students to bring them home, get infected with EVERYTHING and then bring it to the lab.
Sometimes being secure out of the box, even for the box, is important.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
You see prencher, the parent made the same mistake he's accusing others of. He lives in a box and doesn't realize it. He accused the GP of being closed minded/not realistic about the numbers of people who might switch to Macs. He then assumed his position from somewhere inside the IT industry was representative of the larger market. In other words, he's just as closed minded/brainwashed as the "Mac fanboys".
you know, this makes me think how to make it easier to migrate. Something like a tool that runs on windows to prepare the system (decrypt EFS files, record hardware and network settings from the registry), maybe even copy files to a remote network share (or to a gmail account created for the purpose).
Then the linux installer would take over, move you from FAT32/NTFS to ext3, restore enough windows config settings to make your linux install look the same. Screen background, saver, favourites, all those things should go over. Printers, fileshares &c, all there.
That'd be slick. Most of it is just configuration settings; we need to pull them from windows, turn them into linux/gnome/kde options.