Getting Down to the Short Strokes with Vista
Microsoft officials confirmed yesterday they will make the
release
candidate test build of Windows Vista SP1 available to the general public
some time next week. The company also made SP1 code available (through Microsoft
Connect) to the 15,000 testers who were offered the release candidate preview.
Today, Microsoft will make the code of Vista RC1 available to its Microsoft
Developer Network and TechNet. Redmond still plans to deliver the SP1 by the
end of next year's first quarter.
The focus of SP1 will be a raft of security,
reliability and performance fixes, updates that company officials promise
will not render applications incompatible to the extent that Windows XP SP2
did three years ago.
I guess that's supposed to make us feel better about SP1. If it does, it'll
be about the only thing. Don't expect a stampede of IT shops to now decide it's
OK to switch to Vista because the first service pack has been delivered. SP1
hasn't exactly set the world afire.
One good thing about SP1 is that company officials claim to have significantly
cut down the size of the standalone installation packages for Vista SP1 since
this past summer. The installer package has been cut down between 37 percent
(for the five-language pack) to 58 percent (for the version taking in all languages).
Redmond officials also add that they've significantly reduced the amount of
disk space SP1 requires.
Posted by Ed Scannell on December 06, 2007