Thursday, August 30, 2007

Vista Service Pack 1 Beta

The announcement the first Vista Service Pack is about be released in beta is welcome news.

Experienced Microsoft customers know that waiting for the first service pack is a really good idea with a new MS operating system so the release of SP1 will spark the so far lacklustre sales of Vista.

What should be emphasised is that non-techy users shouldn't go within miles of a beta release. The computer industry is unique in this practice of releasing products that might not work so the general population can test.

It's akin to the motor industry giving away a new model car for testing, figuring that they'll save on the cost of crash test dummies.

Would you accept a free car on the basis that the brakes might fail, the airbags might kill the passengers and the whole thing might randomly burst into flames? Well that's what a beta release is.

To be fair to Microsoft they aren't making this available through mass market channels, it will only be available through the MS Developers Network and Technet.

We should also point out that at least MS beta test their major releases rather than using paying customers as crash test dummies which I'm convinced certain anti-virus companies do.

It's good MS are working on the Vista service pack, now we have to ask is where is the XP service pack three? The thing is two years overdue and it's becoming an embarrassment.

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