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

My Microsoft

[Doc Ruby]

If I were handed Microsoft in, say, 2003, I wouldn't have wasted time making Vista. I would have just written a beefed up version of Wine from scratch (to evade the GPL) to fully work. Then packaged it in a Xen-type virtualization layer that could also run multiple instances of either Linux or "Linux Windows", and just made sure all the apps run perfectly in the Windows GUI (not in the Linux GUI - remember, I'm the new Evil Microsoft CEO ;). I'd make something like GNOME or KDE, but that looks like Windows, again evading the GPL to own the IP. I'd touch the GPL kernel only when it needed to be patched to work properly within my otherwise proprietary OS.

Then I'd bundle in all the crap that makes Windows work well with all kinds of other products. Proprietary drivers, bundled 3rd party apps.

And it would all work, it would use all the Linux development (and developers) to sell Windows. It would keep everyone's desktop looking like Windows. And it would actually work, because it would be running on Linux, which is much more reliable than Windows (which gets unmanageably complex under the hood copying all Linux's features).