back to article Where's Wally Vista SP2?

An increasingly cautious Microsoft hasn’t announced a definitive date for when its unloved OS Vista will get its final service pack release, other than to offer a wishy-washy second quarter of 2009 statement. Despite that, many reports are suggesting the software giant’s Vista SP2 schedule has slipped by about a month. The …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Windows 7 Is Vista SP2

    Or at least it should be.

  2. TeeCee Gold badge
    Gates Horns

    MS running trains now?

    You wait ages for a Vista Service Pack and then two turn up together......

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Windows 7?

    "So sorry. Look here, in my coat, I've got an install disk and a licence key. How about we give you a copy of Windows 7, and lets just pretend that whole Vista thing never happened? Can we?"

  4. Paul
    Gates Horns

    Answering the sp2 question...

    Windows 7 will be out late 2009 / early 2010.

    No joke icon you say? Well, I'm not joking!

  5. Mike H
    Dead Vulture

    XP's abnormal lifespan

    By the time Windows 7 comes out guessing late 2009 / some time 2010, it will have given Vista a roughly three year lifespan. I don't know where you get the idea that Vista's lifespan is somehow short.

    Windows 95 to 98 (and 98SE) to the ill-fated ME were about two to three years apart. 2000 came out in 1999 and lasted until XP in 2001.

    But hey, good job with the Vista bashing.

  6. Al Iguana
    Gates Halo

    Running it already

    It's called Windows 7. Infact, Microsoft should slip out Windows 7 to all Vista users by way of apology for us beta-testing it for the last two years.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    @AC RE:Windows 7 Is Vista SP2

    Thats like saying OSX is basically Ubuntu SP3.

    Claiming that the feature list is similar suggests you should work on your reading skills a little more.

  8. Software Guy

    Vista not half as bad

    Most of what vista's problems are come from the media and not the OS itself. I have run vista on many systems without a problem. True, it took more memory and proc to work its best, but it is not as nightmarish as every news story makes it out to be. Also, Microsoft didn't really change the release date of sp2. They said first half of this year and now say second quarter. That is still in the first half if I recall correctly. I too think that Windows 7 should be sp2 if they are planning a RTM late this year/Beginning of next. Spend more time getting the next OS better then trying to revamp Vista sounds good to me, but I am one with out problems with vista so I am bias.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Dates

    "the final release date is based on quality ”

    Presumably, the normal Microsoft definition of quality (ie 'low enough that they purchase the upgrade')

    "the second quarter - so some time around May or June, then"

    Where have you been for the last $x years? Microsoft originally said H1 and are now saying Q2 (which coincidently end at the same time, so the deadline hasn't shifted), so it will be June 29th at the absolute earliest - more likely July or August.

  10. TrixyB
    Stop

    sp2 already available from msdn

    I've had it for a few weeks but too scared to install it. Its about 400mb from memory?

  11. sandiskboy

    I go both ways

    Currently running Vista SP2 and W7 and I have to say Vista is better. I know W7 is a beta but it looks awful and the way it handles graphics and colour is appalling. The 'Dock' is the worst part of it and must have been designed by primary school kids as part of a competition. W7 may well use less memory but the CPU gets fried when it actually has to do something. Perhaps they are not allocating enough memory.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hopefully sp2 will have some of seven's performance tweaks

    I certainly hope sp2 brings in some of sevens performance tweaks

  13. Gaetan

    @Software Guy

    Not trying to bash Vista but when was the last time you tried to copy files over the network with Vista? From a quad core Vista SP1 with 6GB memory, a network copy of 3 files (40MB) located on an XP computer takes about 20 minutes. The same copy from XP to XP takes much less than a minute. Aside from its network file copy bug, I kinda like Vista; better than I thought ... if you have the proper hardware.

  14. Jaques Croissant
    Paris Hilton

    Oi, Kelly

    Please don't make me feel sorry for Vista.. I know it limps along in a pitiful manner, but I don't want to find myself re-installing it out of pity :(

  15. Robert Armstrong
    Go

    Why not give everyone who bought Vista a copy of 7 and get over supporting both?

    If 7 is Vista lean and mean with more toothsome wholesomeness than Vista then why support both Vista and 7? Just give those of us bold enough to take Vista on a reward for spending $300/copy for Ultimate a copy of 7 and then MS only need support 7. Seems like a good way to say thanks to those of us who use Vista and who have put up with a lot of crapdoodle when Vista first launched. It would be a win for MS since they would no longer need to support Vista.

  16. Leo Davidson

    Do we desperately need SP2?

    Do we desperately need SP2? If not then why make a fuss over the release date? I'm surprised there's talk of SP2 already at all, to be honest.

    I guess it's good to bundle all of the Windows Update stuff into a single download but that's still nothing to get excited about the exact release of.

    Vista SP1 seems to work great on the three machines I run it on. I don't have any problems copying files over network drives, either, although that could be because I use Directory Opus rather than Windows Explorer for file management. (It seemed to be the shell file-copy APIs, which Opus does not use, that had the problems pre-SP1.)

    Then again it could also be a problem with your network card drivers... It seems usual for people blame Vista when it could be any number of things, doesn't seem to have been investigated properly and doesn't happen for other people.

  17. N

    Windows 7

    Code name for Vista SP 2.0 (beta)

  18. David

    I use Vista, it's not TOO bad.

    I use Vista on my laptop, admittedly it's quite a reasonable spec 2.4Ghz Core2Duo with 4GB of RAM, but I don't really find any issues with it. I prefer the interface to XP and haven't noticed any horrendous side effects.

  19. Brian Whittle
    Unhappy

    Unbiased reporting

    Some one won't his teddy picking up for him

    Millions and Millions of people use Vista without any serious problems

    For crimminy I reinstalled my macbook with a bigger hard drive and had to run through the hoops of fire and ride the wall of death to get the camera to work with IMovie.

    Bad reporter go to bed with no tea

  20. TrixyB
    Gates Halo

    Actually works quite well...

    OK so I installed..... flippin' eck actually installs well!

  21. BioTube

    Just one question:

    Does it have virtual desktops?

  22. rick buck
    Gates Horns

    7 is lucky, right guys?

    I have Vista on 2 machines, and it works ok.

    UNLESS you want to do anything.

    Then it is a slow, bothersome, OS of a beast.

    If I wanted a $1000.00 TV tuner, I would have bought a TV.

    If I had wanted a boom box, I would have bought one.

    Instead, I bought a Vista computer that can not even make its own back-up,

    let alone COPY SOMETHING I OWN TO A DISK OR OTHER COMPUTER THAT I ALSO OWN.

    That Vista Ready Hp Printer ($250.00) took a year to get software that would make it work.

    (M$ says it is HPs fault-funny it worked with all other computers-some without even loading the software)

    That Sony MD recorder ($200.00, that I use professionally) took more than 2 years to update to work with Vista) Again Vendor error, NOT M$...

    THE CODE IS SUPPOSED TO WORK BEFORE YOU RELEASE IT!!!!!

    It is a shame that M$ has the guts to try to sell us a NEW OS, when they can not get the last one to work properly.

    M$ needs to stop being the worlds policeman, and actually make some software that works.

    and stop telling me that I do not have the rights to copy/watch/listen to something I own.

    PS: Sign me up for the class-action lawsuit against MS!

    (Bill left before the M$ boat went down)

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    the lucky ones.....

    to the lucky ones, just because you have been lucky enough not to visit Vista hell, do not assume it doesn't exist. Yes, you're knowlegable, but you're also lucky. Firstly it makes you appear to be MS shills, secondly, even with SP1 out the door, MS are fully aware that Vista has screwed the pooch. Note the absence of Vista branding from current MS advertising materials. Check out the unresolved issues relating to file copying, dhcp and dns crapping out, hideous levels of network traffic for trivial activities, print spoolers going titsup at inopportune moments. Basic operating system functionality shot to hell.... Oh one of my favourites pre SP1 - inability on some preinstalled systems to rename files..... ffs you can even do that with DOS.

    Only a certified halfwit could read the available information and conclude that Vista is ready for corporate prime time, particularly in a budgetary climate that means corparates are highly unlikely to cough up to replace their whole inventory in one shot. Vista demonstrably does not play well with others.

    I tested betas and RC's of W98 and spotted the odd bug, some serious, most not. Likewise W2000. Vista is demonstrably in a worse state even with SP1 than 98 was in beta, certainly in RC...SP2 is needed desperately, especially for those users who lack the luck and the knowlege of, or the money to consult, the few.

    The wow starts when exactly ?

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