News
Windows Vista SP1 Gets Fast-Tracked
- By Keith Ward
- July 9, 2007
Windows Vista Service Pack (SP)1 is back on track.
According
to Mary Jo Foley, a columnist for Redmond magazine who blogs about
Microsoft for ZDNet, Microsoft will be releasing a beta of SP1
sometime in the week of July 16. Quoting unnamed sources, Foley also
reported that the final version of SP1 should be released in
September 2007.
That's a speeded-up timetable from Microsoft's
recent statements that
it expected to release Vista SP1 next year, closer to the release of
Windows Server 2008. That timeframe was prompted by changes made to
Vista's search functionality, making it more accessible to third-party
developers, primarily Google. The changes, agreed to by Microsoft, the
U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. state attorneys general, are
expected to be the major alterations introduced by SP1.
Currently, Windows Server 2008 is slated for release to manufacturing
(RTM) in the late fall, with an expected ship date early next year.
Initially, Microsoft had said it intended to meet the RTM date with
Vista SP1.
Other changes expected in SP1 include a host of bug
fixes. Those fixes are why most large enterprises and many consumers
wait until the first service pack is released to upgrade to a new
product. That means an ancillary benefit to the quicker release dates
could be a significant boost in Vista sales, since the service pack will be out before the holiday season.