Windows XP - SP3

[Melbosa]

Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/22/windows-xp-sp3-released

WINDOWS XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) was released to manufacturing by Microsoft yesterday.

According to a TechNet posting by Windows XP SP3 Release Manager Chris Keroack, Microsoft will shortly make Windows XP SP3 available to its OEM and Enterprise customers.

He says that it will be available via Windows Update and Download Center on April 29th, but release via Automatic Update won't occur until early summer.

The Vole has had a notably easier time preparing SP3 for XP than it stumbled through trying to get out SP1 for Vista. That's due in some part to Windows XP being a more mature operating system, undoubtedly.

However, Windows XP is a much more stable and mature code base, in that it actually has had working software drivers for virtually all current PC devices and peripherals for some time and doesn't incorporate a bunch of ill-designed and haphazardly implemented digital restriction scams and security schemes.

So good news for all Windows XP users then. They might be stuck in the past, still running a Microsoft OS, but at least they're not completely daft, and now they've got a new service pack that should improve their prospects of keeping Windows XP working fairly well for them, and Vista at bay, for at least another year or two.

Microsoft Post: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3214173&SiteID=17

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas ? you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn?t have done this without you.

We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3.

On behalf of myself, Shashank Bansal and Windows Serviceability, many thanks.

Chris Keroack
Release Manager, Windows XP Service Pack 3
Windows Serviceability

[Melbosa]

Here is the overview of what is coming with the SP.

[Lazybones]

Basically: A Roll up of all updates plus some new network security features.

Can't wait to build a slipstream CD and rebuild my system.. It needs a rebuild BAD!

[Thorin]

Sweet, I got legal just in time to get this!

I wonder how many workstations and servers it might mess up...

[Lazybones]

Built a Slipstream of it this morning. Plan on rebuilding my workstation soon, maybe today.

[Tom]

I suppose I have a reason to boot into windows on both my desktop and laptop now... I wonder If I'll bother.

[Thorin]

Why would XP SP3 give you a reason to boot into Windows?  If you weren't using Windows before SP3, why would you suddenly start using it now?  SP3 doesn't really give anything new experiences that can't be had on some flavour of Linux...

[Mr. Analog]

Why would XP SP3 give you a reason to boot into Windows?  If you weren't using Windows before SP3, why would you suddenly start using it now?  SP3 doesn't really give anything new experiences that can't be had on some flavour of Linux...

Tom just wanted to remind us that he uses Linux

[Darren Dirt]

Funny the timing eh?

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/145059-2/no_change_in_xp_plan_despite_ballmer_comment_microsoft_says.html

Comments by Steve Ballmer at a press conference in Europe today have led to speculation that Microsoft is reconsidering its June 30 deadline to stop selling most new Windows XP licenses. A spokeswoman from Microsoft's public relations firm said Thursday that there is no plan for a change in deadline, however.

"Our plan for Windows XP availability is unchanged. We're confident that's the right thing to do based on the feedback we've heard from our customers and partners," the spokeswoman said, reading from a Microsoft statement.

Ballmer's comments at a press conference at Louvain-la-Neuve University in Belgium led to a flurry of reports that Microsoft may be considering an extension of its deadline.

"If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter, but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments," Ballmer said, according to Reuters. Microsoft did not have a transcript of the event, but the spokeswoman from Waggener Edstrom said the comments seem accurate.

The spokeswoman said Microsoft is aware that some customers are pushing for an extension to the deadline -- more than 160,000 people have signed a "Save XP" petition launched by Infoworld magazine, for example. But the company has also done its own research among partners and customers, and feels that "the dates are right," she said, speaking on behalf of Microsoft.

Retailers and PC vendors can also continue to sell any backlog of Windows XP licenses that they bought before the June 30 deadline. Beyond those exceptions, most new Windows licenses purchased after June 30 will be for Windows Vista.

The owner of a PC support center near Boston questioned which users Microsoft had been gathering feedback from.

"I'd love to know exactly what, and how many 'customers' Microsoft claims to be getting this feedback from," David Bookbinder, owner of Total PC Support, said via e-mail. "My guess, and it's an educated one, is that it's more likely stockholder feedback."

Total PC Support provides service to home and small-business users in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

"I service over 600 clients and have yet to find ONE speak highly of Vista, or wish XP to end," he wrote. "And that goes from the biggest novice on up."

"If customer feedback varies"? How many more signatures are needed before M$ considers it valid "customer feedback" and delays their obviously-profit-motivated decision...

[Tom]

Why would XP SP3 give you a reason to boot into Windows?  If you weren't using Windows before SP3, why would you suddenly start using it now?  SP3 doesn't really give anything new experiences that can't be had on some flavour of Linux...

I use it sparingly, and mostly via VirtualBox, but I do have two bare installs of sp2, and they need updated eventually.