Vista SP1 Release Candidate Available

Microsoft has made available the release candidate for Vista SP1, after a limited beta begun last September. Informationweek points out white papers telling business users that if they were waiting for SP1 to solve application compatibility issues, they needn't bother waiting: SP1 won't solve them, and in fact might cause applications to break that were running under Vista. Techworld outlines the hoops users will have to jump through to get SP1 installed.

Comments

SP3

[Corporate Troll]

I'm much more interested in WinXP SP3 or Win2k SP5...

Re:SP3

[Fast Thick Pants]

I'm much more interested in WinXP SP3 or Win2k SP5...

Win2k SP5 will never happen because MS wants people to think that Win2k is obselete abadonware, even though they've promised to support it until summer of 2010. They refused, for instance, to make a public patch for Win2k's Daylight Saving rules. I doubt they'll even do another post-SP4 patch rollup -- probably just the same trickle of IE6 and DirectX patches we've seen for the last couple of years.

(Of course, you can make your own SP5 and use third party time zone updates. There will probably be a lot of third-party patching as MS continues to drop the ball, pushing the new shiny stuff instead.)

Re:Same Old SP1

[Slashidiot]

It would be the same old same old if the SP1 solved the most obvious flaws of the OS. But the thing is this SP will not solve the application compatibility issues, which in my opinion is one of the big reasons why people don't move to Vista. So, not bussiness as usual, but bussiness even worse than usual. Cool.

Re:Also.. XP SP3 RC1

[Hanners1979]

You can actually grab it directly from Microsoft here too:

http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3-19990518/cabpool/windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu_a2ca583dedcd86837796111a632efa29a23f4cc0.exe

Hoops? What hoops?

[prisoner-of-enigma]

Techworld outlines the hoops users will have to jump through to get SP1 installed. OK, this is just getting to be sad. Slashdot can't announce anything about a Microsoft product without resorting to needless hyperbole.

Here are the "hoops" you have to "jump through" to install SP1:

1. Download the RC1 package.
2. Execute the .CMD file.
3. Done!

Vista will automatically download all updates you need to install the RC1 and install them over the next couple of days (unless you have automatic updates turned off, of course). If you're impatient like me, you can manually kick off Windows Update and install everything with a couple of reboots.

So, speaking as someone that's compiled their own Linux kernel and most of my apps from source more than a few times, the above is no "hoop" at all. Slashdot again goes out of its way to make things seem worse than they are. It's a Release Candidate for crying out loud! I never see this level of scrutiny and criticism directed at any Linux-related software, be it free, open, or commercial.