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Why is Microsoft Patching XP?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-wouldn't-believe-me-if-i-told-you dept.

akkarin noted a story about a new Service patch for XP. Dubbed SP2c, the new service patch contains no bug fixes or features. Instead, this exciting patch exists only to add new valid active product registration keys. Oops.

26 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. well... by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 5, Funny

    Without a service pack it just doesn't feel like windows.

    1. Re:well... by that+IT+girl · · Score: 5, Funny

      Haha, good point! I like this because it's kind of like they're admitting that nobody likes Vista and that they're still going to have people wanting XP, despite the fact that you can't find a new computer loaded with it anymore. People are willing to go out of their way to get XP versus Vista.

      --
      10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
      20 DRINK COFFEE
      30 GOTO 10
    2. Re:well... by Vulva+R.+Thompson,+P · · Score: 5, Funny

      Each Tuesday morning everyone in our office kneels, faces west and screams "Blessed Be Ballmer!" repeatedly. We know He's listening because sometimes the angels reward us with a little icon in our trays.

      We tried it once with the Ubuntu god but it just felt blasphemous and unclean.

    3. Re:well... by pla · · Score: 4, Funny

      You mean every second Tuesday of each month? Fourth Tuesdays are OK too, but they're not critical updates.

      Know ye not any better than to question which Tuesdays work and which don't? Ballmer works in mysterious ways, after all. Why, on several occasions, updates have even appeared on non-Tuesdays! Surely He has blessed us only to reward our dilligence in praying to Redmond 4.25 times each month?

      In any case, you come very near blasphemy, Brother, in asking too many questions about Tuesdays - That sort of thinking can lead the mind in dangerous directions. Why, next you might start to question whether The G*tes (Blessed be his name, which we may not write upon anything impermanent) meant to pass the mantle of his fold on to his nephew or his brother-in-law. Such things only lead to tears and Danish mockery, my friend, so stray not onto that path!

    4. Re:well... by AlanCramer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Tried this in my office once....all I got was a chair thrown at me.

    5. Re:well... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm dealing with a reasonably large staff which has grown incredibly accustomed to, over the course of a decade, the MS DOS 6.0 interface. Whatever the "intuitiveness" of the GUI, the fact remains that it would be a rather large effort on their part (and mine) to move in that direction. Even I, a guy who has been using computers in one form or another since the early 1970s, and considers myself fairly adaptable to new interfaces, found the GUI and the general displacement of all the important functions and macros I use in Wordperfect 5.0 to be very hard to overcome.

  2. funny, the first thing I thought when reading... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    the title was,

    "... If they stop patching/supporting XP, they might get more Vista sales, from those who /must/ have Windows and /must/ have a supported OS."

  3. NT4 called... by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... and they're kinda nervous about their service release record being broken...

    --
    The game.
  4. Re:More incredible by mwvdlee · · Score: 2, Funny

    What I find incredibly is that they reached such a limit at all. Every single f****n programmer knows by now that if you plan for a certain maximum limit, you multiply that number by a factor of 10,000, then raise it to the fourth power and add a few billion just to be sure.

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  5. missing a few by Phil246 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What happened to A and B?
    Did they elope together and disappear into the mountains - and now C is their lovechild?

  6. Uninstall by sjaguar · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder how hard it will be to uninstall when it does not work.

    --
    If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0.
    1. Re:Uninstall by revengebomber · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, it shouldn't be too hard with the standard Windows Uninstaller...

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  7. Oblig Holy Grail quote by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 3, Funny

    FTA: Other signs of the not-dead-yet OS's...

    I'm not dead yet.

    Aw, you'll be stone dead in a moment.

    No, really, I'm feeling much better.

    --
    Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
    1. Re:Oblig Holy Grail quote by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "I think I'll go for walk.....I feel happy, I feel happy..."

  8. Re:More incredible by SCHecklerX · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a good thing airplanes aren't designed that way. Solid steel and cement probably doesn't fly so good.

  9. Re:More incredible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a good thing that airplanes aren't completely built in software, then.

  10. Re:I'm so glad ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm glad I stayed with Windows 98 Second Edition so I don't have to deal with all these endless updates and patches.

  11. Re:you can patch in new keys? by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Funny

    The coolest MS activation hack I've seen is for vista. They emulate an OEM bios (usually asus) and install a key that allows the OS not to have to be activated via the internet (lest consumers have to deal with that after buying their new Vista machine). Works flawlessly, well from what I've heard it does. How would I know?

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    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  12. Re:More incredible by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Every single f****n programmer knows by now that if you plan for a certain maximum limit, you multiply that number by a factor of 10,000, then raise it to the fourth power and add a few billion just to be sure.

          Which explains why a mouse driver needs to be 500MB.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  13. New Linux version announced, community outraged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    A new Linux patch came out today that added two new features and addressed seven minor bugs. Users from Tokyo to London have been taking to the streets in protest.

    "How dare they release a product that was buggy and only just now patch it!" screamed one user in Moscow this morning.
    "That's just like the Linux community, releasing a product before it's ready and patching it later." said Theresa Johnson, a mother of two from Long Island.

    When word got out that Linux version 3 was coming in the future, a number of people were taken aback.

    "Maybe they'll get it right this time." said Randy McNeil, a 15-year old self-proclaimed mathematician, physicist, programmer, and lawyer.

    When after five seconds of being released only two people had downloaded the new patch, computer business analyst Ralph Ivanson said that it just proved that the new version of Linux was too bulky and slow for mass adoption. "Maybe when the Linux developers start forcing people into it, then we'll see some conversion to the new kernel", said Ivanson, who lamented that instead of forcing user to upgrade to the latest patch that the v0.1 patch should have supported PCI-Express from the beginning. "They just weren't forward thinking back then and now it's isolating users." said Ivanson as he pounded on his desk.

    Prices of copies of the Debian Operating System on bootleg CD-R fell to half a bag of weed and an old sandal, down from a bag and a jacket with holes in it in early afternoon trading.

  14. Microsoft's Intentions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Once you install SP2c, you'll be unpleasantly surprised to find Vista is now your operating system!

  15. Re:So.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    SO this is the reason they rushed out Vista in the first place... not enough keys left for XP.

  16. Re:So.... by geobeck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why would it not be on the frontpage?

    Because it's along the lines of "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Doctors report his condition as 'unchanged'."

    --
    Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
  17. Blasphemer! by nlinecomputers · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...The G*tes (Blessed be his name, which we may not write upon anything impermanent)


    And you dare to imply that Slashdot isn't permanent? Never have I witnessed a more true blasphemy.

    We are permanent. We are one. We are +5 Karmawhores and can afford to burn. You promote a false God. There is only one root.
    --
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  18. Re:So.... by Reziac · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, you're saying it comes from the Department of Corrections? ;)

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  19. Re:More incredible by nateb · · Score: 2, Funny
    > Every single f****n programmer knows by now that if you plan for a certain maximum limit, you multiply that number by a factor of 10,000, then raise it to the fourth power and add a few billion just to be sure.

    >> Which explains why a mouse driver needs to be 500MB.

    So.... sqrt(sqrt(500,000,000 - 3,000,000,000)) / 10,000 = one imaginary mouse driver.

    --
    -- Nate