Vista SP1 Release May Be Near

Tokonamu sends a note about the release to a private testing group of a new build of Windows Vista SP1, possibly presaging the imminent release of the long-awaited service pack. Speculation about a Feb. 15 release date has been fueled by a report out of Taiwan, according to the article. Microsoft also issued a new build of Windows XP SP3 this week, but it's getting next to no publicity out of Redmond, what with XP being the main competition for Vista and all.

3 reboots

[baadger]

At the moment installing SP1 RC's requires three seperate trips to Windows Update, and three reboots.

My guess is MS will push out the pre-requisite updates for SP1 this coming February Patch Tuesday, and SP1 a week or two later.

Sudden increase in Vista Sales?

[Viceroy Potatohead]

For the first several months of Vista, it seemed there were a lot of people justifying its poor uptake by suggesting most IT people would wait until SP1 before adoption. After all, everybody knows it takes a bit of time to work out the kinks in a new OS. I'm pretty sceptical, but it'll be interesting to see if the apologists were right.

Waiting for SP1 before implementation?

[xeno]

I was surprised when Microsoft announced that Windows 7 (successor to Vista) will probably be out in about 16 months. Seems like they're stealing their own whimpery thunder re Vista. The release of SP1 for Vista is surely a relief for those who already adopted it, but what about the masses who were waiting for SP1 --- the proverbial "We'll wait for the bugs to be worked out" crowd?

All those folks (including my own org) are now looking at VistaSP1 vs W7 and wondering about the wisdom of adopting Vista at all. If W7 comes out mid-next year, and there's a W7SP1 about a year later... That means right now that Vista offers barely more than a two-year period of stable operation for an entire platform change. With XP still chugging along merrily (with better stability and lower HW expense/requirements) I really don't see the value for any but the smallest organization.

Re:Waiting for SP1 before implementation?

[Fallingcow]

It still eats ungodly amounts of disk space, though.

I would love to know how they managed to waste so many MB. Instead of an easter egg flight sim on the level of the one in Excel, did they put in all of MS Flight Simulator X?

Re:I really wonder, whats with all the reboots?

[bhtooefr]

It actually makes sense for iTunes to be that way on the Mac.

iTunes integrates with QuickTime, which deeply integrates with the graphics subsystem on Mac OS.

Microsoft is NOT planning to release Windows 7

[thisispurefud]

Microsoft is NOT planning to release Windows 7 in 2009 ! Contrary to all that is being said on the net, it clearly looks like Microsoft is NOT planning to release Windows 7 in 2009. Q. What is the expected timeline for the availability of Windows 7? A. We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and expect it will take approximately 3 more years to develop. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release. All this smoke of Windows 7, being released next year, may have led to confusion in the minds of the Windows Vista user. http://www.winvistaclub.com/i7.html [winvistaclub.com]

Tech release or marketing release?

[Just Some Guy]

So, will this be a "real" service pack, or is it aimed at all the companies that said they wouldn't switch to Vista until SP1 came out?

Re:Waiting for SP1 before implementation?

[EvilIdler]

Seriously, yeah, what IS in all that data? It's just an OS.
No devtools or office tools, beyond a calculator and a crappy
text editor with font support. Or have they included actual
useful software which let you do more than manage your files
and play (some of) your music/movies?

I'm probably getting a laptop soon, and it looks like I'll
have to get a Vista refund no matter what model I pick from
the ones I like. I'll be running XP for a few games and
Ubuntu to get my job done.

Re:I heard a rumor...

[KillerBob]

Well... it *is* a 700MB download from MSDN....

Re:Waiting for SP1 before implementation?

[Fallingcow]

Notably, a very large proportion of this is backwards compatibility cruft. Do note that if you don't use old software, none of this will be loaded and really won't take up your RAM (if on the other hand you DO use old software, then it will use some tiny portion of this).

Wine is, what, MAYBE 20 MB installed? Granted, it doesn't run every Window program, but it does cover most of the API and run a huge number of them. Let's say it takes ten times that for horribly inefficient MS coders to do the same thing. 200MB.

Out of an 8.4GB windows folder.

XP was, what, 2.5GB, at most? AND it already included backwards compatibility with '98 and the rest of the MS family, but let's ignore that for the sake of argument. So we've accounted for 2.7GB. Now let's say Aero takes 500MB (WTF???). That's 3.2GB. Add 100MB for IE7 just for the hell of it. Another 500MB for IIS and other server software (which mine, with its 8.4GB windows folder, doesn't even have, I think, being "home professional" or whatever, not Ultimate, but let's say it's there, just disabled) and 1GB for Office and Office-related crap, even if it's not installed. Another 200MB for media and burning software (which is easily 3x the space that stuff has any right to use). 200MB for DRM (why not?).

So... we're up to 5.2GB, with INSANELY inflated numbers for everything (anything more than 1/5 the space I allotted for Aero and the new graphical interface would be a travesty, for example) and using inaccurate 1000MB gigabytes. 8.4GB is the target. Even throwing out totally crazy numbers, I can't manage to account for all that space. What in God's name have they done to use that much? Even if it doesn't matter because disk space is cheap (I disagree, BTW) I'd just love to know. It's just... so bizarre.

Re:no one cares.

[Achromatic1978]

My media center runs Vista

I also didn't pay for it (MSDN)

Right, because your media center is a development/test environment, is it, and not a cornerstone of your home theater setup, right. I mean, that IS what you agreed when you signed up for your MSDN subscription, right, that those licenses weren't for private use, but for development and testing purposes?