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Vista Service Pack One Almost Here

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the like-a-really-lame-christmas dept.

arogier writes "After numerous delays and an actual release reversal, the official release date for Vista service pack one has been set for Tuesday, March 18th on Windows Update and Microsoft Downloads. It will be released as an automatic update on April 18th. 'It's unclear so far how a February snafu will affect SP1's roll-out. Last month, after Microsoft pushed a pair of prerequisite patches to users, some reported that their machines refused to finish installing one of the fixes, then went into an endless series of reboots. Several days later, Microsoft pulled the update from automatic delivery, said it was working on a solution and promised it would "make the update available again shortly after we address the issue."' It would be a good time for those planning to adopt early to perform requisite backups and locate their restore media."

10 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. I got the, er, "early adopter" version. by arrenlex · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great news, but it doesn't matter to me anymore. I already pirated it from bittorrent. Read that again. I was so desperate to make it work I had to STEAL FIXES for an operating system I LEGALLY BOUGHT. Says a lot about Vista, doesn't it.

    1. Re:I got the, er, "early adopter" version. by Solra+Bizna · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's more like ordering a meal, then complaining that they DID immediately bring you the uncooked ingredients, hoping that they'll have time to cook it for the people who order later.

      -:sigma.SB

      --
      WARN
      THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM
    2. Re:I got the, er, "early adopter" version. by CmdrGravy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not quite, a better analogy might be that it's like going to restaurant and recieving a mediocre and unsatisfying starter and main course and when it comes to pudding being told that the pudding isn't ready yet and if they were to serve it to you immediately you might get ill and die. Nevertheless even hearing this advice you then break into the kitchen and gobble down the partially cooked pudding rather than taking the perfectly sensible option of going to the lovely homely Penguin tavern next door where they're serving wholesome, nutritious and filling meals for nothing, and with free beer.

  2. Re:Moment of truth... by Sheen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am probably the only one on slashdot who uses Vista AND likes it. I have had exactly 1 issue with vista since I got it in Jan. 2007, that was a missing driver, which appeared on vendor site Feb. 2007 (webcam). So personally I can't see why everyone is slamming it so much. I will never go back to XP. ( this is not ment as a troll post, im just saying what i think of it.)

  3. Re:Moment of truth... by sunami88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now to see how many "I'll wait for SP1 before moving to Vista" people actually follow through.

    That was, they'll wait for SP1 to pass judgment. Not wait for SP1 then blindly buy.

    --
    Sex. Drugs, and Unix.
  4. Re:Somehow... by sunami88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... I can't help but pity those poor Vista users. What should be simply the release of a patch has become a major "event" which people actually have to prepare for and which, from what I hear, is even causing something quite similar to mild panic. But then again, you do get great DRM for your troubles.
    I don't have mod points, so bring on the Flame bait mods. What do you call the Mac OS distribution system? Updates or epiphanies.

    I just want an accurate frame for your post, Mac troll or Linux user.
    --
    Sex. Drugs, and Unix.
  5. Re:Somehow... by unbug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And this is different from a new kernel version how? One big difference is that the Linux kernel (which is the one you mean, I presume) is usually updated in much smaller increments which means that every single update has less chance of breaking things. Another big difference is that kernel updates only update the kernel, not X, KDE/Gnome/whatever and all those programs which your system won't run without. These are updated separately which, again, means that there's less chance of breaking things.
  6. It's faster by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Having bought a new Dell laptop with Vista on that's lower spec than my work machine (policy is to update desktops later this year), my laptop almost always feels far more responsive.

    Plus, there's other unsung stuff in Vista i've not seen in any OS - the problem solutions centre (not sure exactly how to translate into English); when I got it I had my one and only BSOD in Vista. Shocked, I rebooted and as soon as I was back to the desktop Windows pops up a message saying "I see something real bad happened; do you mind if I see if there's a solution online?". Click Yes, comes back saying "Ah I crashed because of this driver; there's a update to it here which will fix the problem". It's never happened since.

    So yeah, there's reasons Vista is better. UAC is top too; I like to know when a program is gonna try and change my system (some try that you'd never think would - denied).

    It's an upgrade without a doubt. I wouldn't pay specifically to upgrade mind you, but I appreciate the changes as they come anyway.

    --
    throw new NoSignatureException();
  7. Re:No there's plenty by Linker3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The reason people slam it so much here is because they badly want it to fail. It is predominantly FUD."

    Sorry, that's not quite right. I have a negative view about Vista because, having had to install it on a laptop so I can support some of my user base that have Vista, I have had:

    1) The laptop screen saver not waking up *sometimes* and so I have to toggle the laptop in and out of standby to carry on working.
    2) A wifi driver that blue screens *sometimes* on resuming from standby so if 1) happens I may lose my work in progress.
    3) A damn stupid box that pops up every time I run notepad++ warning me about the program.
    4) Mysterious periods of disk thrashing.
    5) Mysterious periods of wifi not connecting.
    6) A need to buy 1GB more RAM to make the thing stop plodding.
    7) RDP sessions mysteriously failing and needing a registry key deleted to get things going again

    Now, I am sure some of these things are fixable with some tweaking or with some patching, and perhaps the wifi issue is down to the chipset company, but the number of hoops my users I have had to go through to make simple things work is extraordinary and timewasting. Unlike XP (or 2000 or NT), rarely has Vista been an 'out of the box' solution to a new install.

    I am very pragmatic when it comes to Vista, but quite simply if you put identical machines running Vista and XP side by side (OK, let's give Vista some more RAM to start) and use them both for a short while, my money's on Vista being more of a PITA to use and less easy to navigate: things that took a few clicks to get to are now buried and we have had to wait for revised or new beta versions of some apps just to get some things going. Some users were on Office 2002 - but Outlook has problems with that so we have had to pay to upgrade some, while others have been moved to a Scalix pilot system.

    Sure, Vista is not a train wreck, but it's a bloody big detour on the road to efficient computing with many rough edges and a cost loading. I know it will get better over time, but when it hit the ground running it was still getting dressed and keeps tripping over its pants.

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  8. Re:Updates? Ha! by plague3106 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The common component to all those failures is you.