How Important Is Vista's Service Pack 1?

[Sunite]

How Important Is Vista's Service Pack 1?
By Barry Levine
August 30, 2007 8:33AM

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With Microsoft pegging the formal release date of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to the first quarter of 2008 -- a milestone for which many companies have been waiting -- some observers are saying that, regardless of what's actually in Vista's SP1, the part that's still missing is a really good reason to leave Windows XP.

Related Topics
   Windows Vista
   Windows XP
   Microsoft
   Service Pack

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   Will the timing and nature of the first service pack for Windows Vista impact the operating system's acceptance? Industry observers were busy pondering that and other questions following yesterday's announcement that Vista SP1 would be released in the first quarter of 2008.

In an interview posted on Microsoft Relevant Products/Services's site yesterday, Senior Vice President Jon DeVaan said "the exact date depends on feedback we receive from testers" and that a beta version is being distributed to "more than 10,000" within a few weeks. There had previously been reports of a release date in late 2007.

DeVaan acknowledged that the elapsed time between Vista's release and the first service pack was "a little longer" than it had been for Windows 2000 or XP, but said there were methods other than service packs to get "fixes, improvements, and updates into the hands of customers." He cited hot fixes and Windows Update as examples.

Holding Off Until SP1

The announcement about SP1 follows months of silence about the first service pack. Some businesses and consumers prefer a service pack release instead of tiny incremental updates because it provides a single set of the first wave of fixes.

Many companies are holding off Vista deployment until SP1 arrives. CNET speculated that Microsoft's announcement of a general release data is intended to "sway some businesses that have yet to move forward" to begin "at least testing the OS."

Gregg Kreizer, writing on Computerworld, said that the expectations for this service pack were set so high because the last Windows client service pack, SP2 for Windows XP, "set the bar very high" by making sweeping changes, especially in security Relevant Products/Services, rather than simply providing fixes. He also said that XP's SP3 is scheduled for release in a few weeks, but that it will include previously released updates and "a small number of new updates." Microsoft has said it intends to phase out XP.

"It's almost as if Microsoft's embarrassed by how well XP's hanging in there," Kreizer wrote.

Needed: 'Reason To Leave XP'

Windows XP SP2 was really a "feature pack," said IDC analyst Brett Waldman, adding that it did cause testing problems for enterprises. But he agreed that Windows Update has become the main avenue for Vista fixes and updates, even though there are still corporate customers for whom the first service pack is a symbolic measurement of an operating system's maturity.

Ken Fisher of Arstechnica pointed out that service packs aren't what they used to be, and that Windows Update is a proven way to release Vista fixes. But "that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft still issues Service Packs," he noted, and that there are Vista users out there interested in when they can get their hands on SP1.

Some observers have said that the Vista SP1 release says something about XP and Vista itself. Regardless of what's actually in Vista's SP1, noted John Murrell on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, the part that's still missing is "a really good reason to leave XP." And Dan Farber and Larry Dignan ask on ZDNet: When SP1 finally arrives, "are we really getting what Vista should have been at launch?"