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Vista SP1 Released to Manufacturing
Reverend Ninja writes "According to the Windows Vista team blog, Windows Vista SP1 has been released to manufacturing. It appears we'll have to wait until mid-March to play with it though, as the team cites that they want everyone to have a 'great install experience'. 'Service Pack 1 brings new improvements that are based on feedback we heard from our customers. It further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista. The information we collect thanks to tools like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting help us learn about where and when customers are having issues with Windows Vista and the applications that run on it. Since these issues have a direct impact on our customers' experiences, we've invested time and energy to make this better. While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process.'"
This sort of crap has been going on a while now with every company trying to talk up the most trivial action into sounding something earth shattering or life changing. HOw many companies now just have a product? Not many , most have a "mission" or a "vision" in the hope that this juvenile over emphasis of everything will somehow fool people into thinking they're really some sort of spin off of the SAS or some high brow philosphical deep thinkers , rather than some shitty little cleaning services company or whatever. Everyone apart from marketing morons and some middle management still stuck in the early 90s is sick of it.
I have come to the conclusion that language such as this, that of advertising, marketing, that of middle- and upper-management and politics is simply the language of the uber incompetent. In other words - make it sound important and significant to make it look like they know what they are talking about even when they don't have a frickin clue.
I'm no Microsoft apologist, but I do think the unbridled hate that pervades /.'s reaction to every single Vista article is a bit out of hand. Maybe this will help stem the tide of Vista-bashing. Sure, Vista kinda sucks, but all Windows versions kinda suck. I think most people who are ripping on Vista for being the operating system anti-christ are forgetting how badly XP sucked pre-SP1, and even pre-SP2. 7 years ago, the chorus of "OH MY GOD XP IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN 2000! THERE'S NO NEED TO UPGRADE!" in every XP article's comments were eerily similar to the ones you hear now every time Vista gets a mention.
Vista's maturing, and as it does it'll become a better operating system, and everyone will benefit, even if they don't use Vista. Microsoft still competes largely on the basis of being a de facto standard. Vista's release has caused them to lose this edge somewhat, and the window has opened for their competition, who compete mostly on features, to get a little lazy (Leopard, anyone?). Microsoft competing more vigorously on their stale plank, assuming they don't magically find traction they've been unable to find for years, can't do anything but help the products on the market.
Okay, now it's time to cue the million responses calling me a Microsoft shill. Suggested topics: "There really was no reason to upgrade from 2k to XP, I still use 2k just fine," "Vista is beyond repair because of DRM," and "Vista is way more broken than Leopard, how dare you rip on OS X."
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
Excellent question. And the answer is: because otherwise your users won't know what a great thing they got - they wouldn't notice a damn thing at all. But if it's all nicely wrapped in bells, whistles and shiny ribbons with bright letters reading "Vista SP1", then they will have that warm and fuzzy feeling of having something new, valuable, BETTER.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
For a company so adept at spinning information into pro-MS propaganda (much like any big company, mind you), you would think that they would do a better job of obfuscating the fact that they have at least 3 different channels for collecting program crash information!
Actually, that would be if it's 100% faster. 50% faster means it'll only take 98.25 years.
games journalism blog
If Joe Customer buys a Hi-Def movie and windows can't play it, he's going to point straight at Microsoft with the finger of blame - even though the fault lies with the manufacturer of the disc.
Simple fix - MS puts up a dialog box that says, "The manufacturer of this disk has denied permission for this disk to be played on your system. Please contact the disk's manufacturer for more information." and points the finger of responsibility for this crap right back at the studios. MS is already taking heat for the new DRM as it is - I for one won't be running Vista as long as it has that infernal DRM functionality on it, and I certainly am not the only one. It's the operating system's job to manage and abstract the hardware for use by the programs the user chooses to run on the system, not pass moral judgement on said user or his system on behalf of some other business entity. I refuse to accommodate one that does. Besides, upgrading from XP to Vista would require me to shell out several hundred dollars in unnecessary hardware just to be able watch HD content in its native resolution on my current system, on top of the purchase price of the OS itself. No thanks.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas