RSSWindows Server 2008, Windows Vista SP1 released to manufacturing
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 4, 2008, 12:48 PM
The party is on for February 27th, as Microsoft confirms its star attraction, Windows Server 2008, will be released on time. Admins everywhere may now be breathing a sigh of relief.
There will be no delay from here on out in Microsoft's release of Windows Server 2008. As one of the company's "heroes" for its gala rollout party in Los Angeles in just over three weeks' time, WS2K8 will arrive neither early like its "hero" partner Visual Studio 2008, or late like SQL Server 2008, which will actually ship at least six months after it "launches."
The Windows Server Division blog this morning went so far as to post someone in the actual ship room to eyewitness the first moments of WS2K8 packaging being rolled out of the factory.
"In the final days leading up to RTM, the tone in the war room meetings was calm, almost too calm because there were minimal bugs to resolve and final testing went very smoothly," wrote the team's roving correspondent. "We focused on testing of the code changes made in Nov/Dec to make sure nothing regressed."
Meanwhile, though heroic status has not been attributed to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, it could very well become one of the more welcomed attractions this quarter. This morning, product manager Mike Nash announced on his team's blog, in a rather lengthy and carefully worded post, that SP1 will not be rolled out in the traditional sense, so much as gently provoked out into the market.
"The key learning over the last year is that when we change the operating system, it takes time to let the ecosystem make sure that the hardware and software that they build works well with Windows Vista," states the key writing of Nash. "So as we release Windows Vista SP1 to manufacturing, we are going to be thoughtful about when and how it gets distributed."
The problem this time is avoiding giving the impression to Vista users that SP1 is being inflicted upon them somehow, the way doctors force their patients to only take the medication they prescribe. So beginning in mid-March, Nash said, Vista will be made available first and only through Microsoft Update, whose older name is Windows Update and which Nash referred to as "Windows Update." That way, the first batch of SP1 downloaders will be those who request SP1 directly rather than automatically.
Assuming all's going well, SP1 will be made available through Automatic Updates the following month, but only to customers whose installed drivers are not on a list of those found to not be compatible with SP1. This way, customers don't go to work one morning and find they can't log onto their "upgraded" systems.
Once incompatible drivers are fixed or replaced, then systems with those drivers can download SP1, Nash said. "The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience," he wrote.
One thing I didn't think of is that sp1 has been around in RC form for months now, beta even before that. It is absolutely rediculous that a driver can break a sp, or a sp can breaka driver?
Is there really that much of a change in sp1? One that problems couldn't be addressed in the last year?
I mean I could kind of understand when vista was first released, I mean quite literally no one had compatible products or drivers that worked well, but now there really is no excuse.
Vista really is a head ache for everyone I guess isn't it.
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|burfadal says.. "reintall for a clean start next month when the pack is finally released to the public."
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I have rc installed, i didnt realize i couldnt just 'uninstall it', then install sp1 final..
sucks!! i have wayy to much pr0n to back up..ugh!
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|Supposedly you can uninstall it. Under programs and features in the control panel, click on 'view installed updates' in the left pane. You should then see an item for sp1.
You may be lucky and be able to uninstall and install the rtm version. However, uninstalling a service pack, since it does so many changes to the system, is not the best idea and can fail due to changes made since it was installed. The other problem is programmes that run fine under Vista Gold and Vista SP1 RC may not work after uninstalling sp1 as the uninstall process may upset certain file, but more likely the registry in the process.
Computer hobbyists will always start from a clean slate, as thats the best way to do things. That may sound like a statement of my opinion, which it is, but its also fact! - they may have installed sp1 rc on an already running system, but for RTM most will start with a fresh install.
The problem with sp1 drivers I think relates to a small number of devices that most people will not be affected by.
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|Put the pron on an external drive, or inside a VM.
Problem solved. :)
Hey, the external drive works fine for my music collection, and the VM works great for, um...my other music collection. Yeah.
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|Yeah I don't get that either. Forcing the update via windows/microsoft update on day 1 is one thing. But not even making it available via download to those who are smart enough and eager enough to search it out and WANT to install it? Now that is just weird.
I mean Microsoft knows how eagerly awaited this thing is. Post RC1 and a refresh brag about it being done, then say oh yeah, you can't have it now for another month.
Glad im sticking with xp, no issues, no surprises and no broken and empty promises.
Maybe when they finally decide to allow the power users to download at their own free will, and not treat the customers who are smart enough (and care) like they are idiots. Just wait baby, you will get your sp. (haha)
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|MSDN and technet will get it soon, if they don't already have it.
The rest get to wait until MSFT releases it.
Read the blog, they are holding it to let the OEMs fix the driver issues that are causing SP install failures.
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|When RC1 for SP1 was released, Microsoft encouraged users to install it. This was under the condition that users understood it was a release candidate and that it may change before final release. That was in December, now that February has come around they've finished the product and yet not releasing it until some minor issues are resolved with certain drivers. Those that have installed this release candidate are in a worse position because they can not update their Windows with recently released patches, and are not willing to reinstall the machine now and update it, then reintall for a clean start next month when the pack is finally released to the public.
I'm sure these drivers aren't commonplace amongst Vista users, their claim for the reason why it hasn't been released to public being that they don't want people to be annoyed that a hardware device has failed. This is understandable since Vista has had a lot of bad press and complaints from users.
I think Microsoft should release it straight away as a standalone update, and have on the download page explicit information pertaining to those affected pieces of hardware.
The other thing they could do is have a basic Vista SP1 analyser (this is something that can be done extremely simply, and doesn't require much effective time for coding) that checks the current hardware and notifies the user whether there are devices that aren't fully SP1 compatible or not. Wasn't there a Vista analyser? this could just be an extension to that.
Not having SP1 available at all will just have the side effect of many people deciding to stick with XP, due the perceived incompetence of the Microsoft people to users needs. It also means many businesses will either stick to XP or roll back to XP as I know of a few large organisations/government agencies have (in different countries).
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|When will Vista x64 Ultimate SP1 DVD's be available? Ohh the wait. I'm thinking of buying an OEM DVD but only if it has SP1 on it. I'll be mad if they make me wait now like 3-4 months. :
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|The last time I checked Microsoft's own Vista SP1 documentation (the deployment guide if I remember correctly), integrated install DVD's were not going to be available to consumers at all. I also read some posts in Microsoft's Vista SP1 forum stating integrated installs were not supported at all on Vista RTM install DVD's.
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|The thing hold back the release of SP1 is a driver? come on, thats got to be the most stupid thing I have ever heard. What drivers are affected anyway? its great to see Microsoft are coy about that. Its probably a driver for a 3 yr old x86 machine that Microsoft provided (as their 'superior' cough cough Microsoft drivers which for manufacturers are just old drivers rebadged, (and in the case of display drivers de-opengl'd). They're old because they're suppose to be infalable as they are 'throughly' tested. Nice going Microsoft.
It obviously doesn't affect newer machines because its RTM!
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|wahoo! I cant wait for this update.
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|WS2K8 is available now on MSDN.
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|Of course the real thing that everyone is actually waiting for (I know I am!) is XP SP3. It's very close to release but not yet there.
I've been bitten by Vista and frankly, it's XP all the way for me still.
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|I've been runnin' SP3 RC for a couple of months now without any hassle.
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|why?
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|Because it's a lot faster to install SP3 RC than to download all of the security updates and bugfixes from the Microsoft Update website.
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|Some "Launch Event" coming up. VS 2008 shipped months ago. WS08 and Vista SP1 will ship in March (supposedly), but SQL 2008 won't ship until (as late as) Sept 2008. Huh?
I should tell my four kids that all their birthdays will be on the same day now. Why not? Microsoft does. :)
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|Tell them it's Christmas.
Only 1 present giving day a year is a superb idea.
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|great! I now have to wait (Officially) for 6 more weeks...
Of course I won't wait that long... I'll find some *ahem* way..
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|Then don't whine about it when it fails to install due to driver issues.
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