Windows 7 RTM Support Ending Soon 173
jones_supa writes with this news from Ars Technica: "Windows 7 users will have to install Service Pack 1 if they want to continue to receive security fixes and other support beyond April 9th. With the release of a Service Pack, Microsoft's policy is to support the old version for two years. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was released on 22nd February, 2011, so the phasing out of support is happening more or less on schedule. In spite of a growing number of post-Service Pack 1 fixes and updates, Microsoft has shown no signs of shipping a second Service Pack. Should Service Pack 1 be the sole major update for Windows 7, it will continue to receive mainstream support — which encompasses both security updates, non-security bugfixes, and free phone support — until 13th January 2015. Extended support — security fixes and paid incidents only — will continue until 14th January 2020."
you are an idiot (Score:5, Insightful)
I think I can make it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:you are an idiot (Score:4, Insightful)
And I always thought "service pack" was just Microsoft slang for "patch roll-up." Apparently I was wrong. In this case, I don't see why Microsoft continues to develop two separate lines of what is basically the exact same OS, patch by patch. Sure, help the businesses that want time to test... fine, but it's still stupid to maintain two bases for so long, when they are essentially the same damn thing. It's more likely that third party programs are going to fuck up on you, and in my experience that does seem to be where the problems often lie.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What exactly is a Service Pack? (Score:4, Insightful)
A service pack is a form of configuration management. Think of every binary in the Windows operating system as a program with a version. Microsoft wants to encourage developers to support the latest version of their patched OS. That is, of course, feasibly impossible, especially when some developers are confronted with major behavioral change in one OS program update that their application is dependent upon. So having a "blessed" minimal collection of binary versions makes Microsoft only responsible for those versions. It then becomes incumbent for the developers to make sure their application works to SP1 versions of all those OS programs, and the developers cease to be responsible for making their app work with the original OS binary/daemon that was released with the Windows 7 rollout. (And yes, this is a descriptive simplification of the issue.)
There is more going on with a service pack than just throwing together the latest version of each OS binary. Yes, I wish Microsoft would put out an SP2 already, even if they want to commit corporate suicide by abandoning Windows 7 to get customers to move to Windows 8.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:looks like (Score:5, Insightful)
lucky for them much of the cloud is powered by linux
Re:5 hours (Score:2, Insightful)
I recently installed Windows 7 on two machines. It took 5 hours on both machines to download, setup all patches. It restarted itself about 15 times.
I recently reinstalled kubuntu 10.04 because 12 sucked. It took half an hour, only one reboot. Strange that a free OS is so superior to an expensive one.