Microsoft’s Windows Vista SP release date
Rumors about the coming release of Windows Vista’s first service pack are getting stronger. Many analysts and commentators are saying that the service pack will come out around October/November, but at the moment there is no service pack listed on Microsoft’s service pack roadmap.
Microsoft watchers speculate that Vista Service Pack One (SP1) will be released to coincide with the release of Longhorn server. They believe that the release will be mainly about bringing Vista up to technical parity with Longhorn Server, particularly in areas of networking, client management and self-repairing file system.
However, a Microsoft spokesperson has said that he expects Windows Vista SP1 to include necessary security updates, hot fixes and other unspecified changes.
“For now, it’s too early to provide any firm date range for SP1’s delivery. We will continue to take customer feedback from programs like the TAP, and will ultimately determine an official delivery date as the service pack is nearer to completion,” added the spokesperson.
Analyst Greg DeMichillie, of Directions on Microsoft, thinks Microsoft is being foolish for not laying out a service pack roadmap.
“They really don’t want people to get the impression that Vista is this problem-filled operating system, and I can understand that. But corporations want clarity more than anything else,” he told internetnews.com. “They just want to know what’s coming in the next 12 months. It would be good for Microsoft to give IT a date so they can do their planning.”
I’d like to believe that Microsoft has long been working for the development of SP1. However whether this is the case or not, Microsoft should be open about when we should expect SP1 to arrive. Only by having access to all the information available can computer users decide whether they should upgrade to Windows Vista.
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April 21st, 2007
[...] Microsoft has been fairly, okay, completely silent about pinning a firm release date for Vista SP1. As my friend Ruben said, many analysts are placing the release date close to the end of the year around the October/November time frame or whenever Longhorn server ships. Intel CEO Paul Otellini did not have a problem naming a rough time frame during a conference call on Tuesday. ComputerWorld has the details of what transpired. [...]