Slashdot Mirror
Windows XP SP3 Released To Manufacturing
mike_diack was one of many readers to send word that Windows XP SP3 been released to manufacturing. It will be available to OEMs and enterprise customers on April 29. Here is a summary of features and changes. The company will wait till "early summer" to enable SP3 downloads through Automatic Updates.
Remember when XP SP3 was impossible which was why everyone had to change to Vista?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
OMG, I can't wait, only 8 more days until I can patch my system with SP3! So exciting... patches... wooo!!!
Windows XP SP3 - detailed by channel schedule
Channel / Release Vector
Planned dates (US)
RTM (release to manufacturing) - Apr-21
OEM Channel - Apr-21
Windows Update - Apr-29
Download Centre - Apr-29
MSDN/Technet Download - May-02
Windows XP SP3 Fulfillment Media - May-19
VL Customers via download - Jun-01
Automatic Updates - Jun-10
Uh, SPs are just packaged updates since the last major release. XP SP2 was the exception this time around. You already have most of SP3, if not all of it, if you've been staying up to date.
The most notable new feature of SP3 is that it allows more CD keys to be entered into it, since they are extremely close or have run out of new ones to print that XP, XP SP1 and XP SP2 will recognize.
The SP3 via automatic updates seems to mean to me that they are waiting that long to have a special SP3 download (like the massive 300MB or so SP2 offline installer)
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
Wanna bet on whether or not it "accidently" breaks enough machines to convince people to upgrade?
Check out my sysadmin blog!
WTF? Why do MSDN and VL customers get this later than Windows Update? What exactly are we paying for?
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Still no directX 10.
But at least I got some patches!
You're not really the customer for this if you're thinking retail. Sure, it's a patch set for end-users, but the main target is corporate / volume license customers (for example, higher ed) customers who want updated media, drivers, etc. and don't want to move to Vista yet. They're still going to be able to get and use XP (downgrade rights) via their license agreement, and many will probably use XP for another couple of years.
Early Summer!
So somewhere around December then?
Something must have been pretty damn efficient to fit an elephant into a telephone booth.
I'm aware there are third party ways to update fresh builds of XP in a more straightforward fashion (or integrate the updates in to the install disc), but where is mighty Microsoft on this? Where is the value here?
Ummm, you don't need a third-party tool, microsoft provides lots of information on how to slipstream patches into xp before you install. This documentation has been available for years, and it is the same technique as win2000 and win2003 (dunno about vista).
You can also script your install (search google for winnt.sif or unattend.txt) so you just turn on the system and come back in 30 minutes with everything installed the way you like it. Go look at www.msfn.org.
How to do your Windows/Ubuntu PC, with 2 hardrives:
/home (ext2)
/home.
/boot/grub/stage1
drive 1,120GB (operating systems and windows programs)
drive 2 200GB+ (linux data)
partition drive 1 into four partitions of this size:
1. 20G - for XP (fat32)
2. 20G - for XP backup (fat32)
3. 60G - for windows data (fat32)
4. 20G - for ubuntu linux / (ext2)
partition drive 2 into 2 partitions:
1. 512 MB for linux swap
2. the rest for linux
Google "hirens download" for a cd with partition and ghost programs.
Install XP on drive 1 partition 1 and patch it up and install all your stuff. Put games in a folder called "programs" on part 3. Make sure you have a router firewall so XP not get hacked right away.
Install Ubuntu linux (or whatever) to the 4th partition on drive 1, tell it to use the big partition on drive 2 as
Then ghost XP to partition 2 for when it goes to shit. When that happens, just ghost it back from 2 to 1: 5 minutes beats an hour or two.
If you re-install windows, you will lose your boot menu that linux did for you. Just boot to the ubuntu cd, and click Apps, Terminal and then:
grub
find
-->it replies with (hd0,3)
root (hd0,3)
setup (hd0)
quit
exit
Legend has it that Vista the Elephant was wandering about on the beach, minding its own business, when it spied a piano on a small island just offshore, at his favorite bar, The Funky Trunk. TFT had a land bridge briefly at low tide, but the water formed a moat to keep out the riff-raff most of the time. The durable unit sat outside on the deck, adjacent the call box. (But don't let the delightfully retro rotary dial, the old style mouthpiece, or the earpiece with the frayed, cloth-covered cord within the weathered, almost out-house-ish callbox distract you from the ivories on the piano, or the ivory on the shore, or you'll screw up the pacing of this admittedly predictable short story).
Something of a piano aficionado , the elephant wandered out to the island to relive an Anderson and Roe moment.
Suddenly, a shark appeared between the elephant and the island, water barely deep enough for the sleek menace to move!
Turning in alarm, the elephant started to move back to the shore. Another shark! What to do? Arriving at full panic, the elephant leapt with stunning mechanical efficiency clear over the first predator, landing in the phone booth.
Now you know the story of how Vista jumped the shark.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
been using it since it went out March 28th on MSDN... it is fine.
Just wanted to say thanks; driverpacks.net has saved me so much time and hassle slipstreaming and integrating images for work. Between driverpack.net, RyanVM, WPI, nlite and msfn.org forums, I've saved countless hours. I would have spent all that time either collecting files, writing scripts, etc. or just going through a Dell 'clean' install (which, even at my fastest, takes about 3 hours to slim down and then install the company apps, and configure/add to domain). Your driver packs saved my bacon a few months ago when the Dell cd drive died and I had to use one off the shelf. I've also pulled raw infs from them on occasion when I've needed a driver that I didn't want to hunt down. Thank you!
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.