Text 17301, 139 rader
Skriven 2007-04-07 21:44:44 av mike (1:379/45)
Ärende: Microsoft Threatens Poster of Vista SP1 Info
====================================================
From: mike <mike@barkto.com>


Scroll down a bit...

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95725/95725.html?Ad=1


===
WinInfo Blog

It feels like Saturday today because the kids are off from school (Good
Friday?) and because my wife didn't set the alarm as a result so I slept in by
mistake. Now I've got to race through Short Takes so I can make it to the gym
on time and... arrgggh..... Anyway. There's nothing like the sharp, cold blast
of reality in the morning.

And speaking of cold, I'm going to stop talking about the weather. After
essentially promising myself and others that winter was over, we lapsed into a
week of frigid temperatures and even had some snow. I almost ran outside and
covered up the flowers that had burst through the ground a week earlier. It's
finally going to be milder this coming week, but the past week has just been
brutal. Spring always comes in fits and starts in this part of the world, but
this is ridiculous.

My son Mark turns nine on Saturday. He's selected "Monster Golf" as the
location for this year's party, so our family, and almost 20 screaming
nine-years old kids, will be immersed in a dark, black-lighted indoor mini-golf
nightmare for a few hours this evening, and I as much as I love the kid, I have
to admit I'm not all that excited about this event. And if you're curious,
there's still no word on his pending cochlear implant surgery. Apparently,
we're waiting on the parts, which is also true of my wife's Mazda, and yes, I
find that coincidence more than vaguely disturbing.

For the next ten days, friends of ours from France will be visiting, which is a
nice turnaround, as we've stayed with them more than a few times now when we
travel there.

Last night, Leo and I recorded a live version of our Windows Weekly podcast,
which was fun. We had quite a crowd, and a number of people calling in via
Skype or otherwise. I'm not sure how this works, exactly, but I assume a
recording will be made available normally via the podcast. In the meantime, you
can hear it on the TalkShoe Web site.


Short Takes

Microsoft Considers Near-Free Zune Model While there have been rumors of a Zune
smart phone lately, it seems that Microsoft's designs on the smart phone market
are more about distribution plans than actual hardware: The company is
considering taking a page from the cell phone/smart phone playback by offering
a Zune model for little or no cost and then making up the difference by
requiring the buyer to sign on to a yearly subscription plan. If Microsoft does
pursue this tact, it won't happen any time soon, but the company noted that it
got the idea in recent months after watching the number of subscribers to its
Zune Marketplace surge early this year. I think that's a fine idea, but I'd
like to see Microsoft attack some core Zune issues first, by adding additional
model types (like a flash-based version) and some missing functionality
(including podcast support).

Microsoft Releases Home Server SDK
Microsoft's upcoming Windows Home Server product is a nifty idea, and my
experience with the beta version thus far has been surprisingly positive. This
week, Microsoft revealed that it will be making Home Server even more useful,
however: It released a software development kit, or SDK that will allow
developers to write applications and services that can integrate with Home
Server. And I'd like to once again clear up some confusion about this product:
Despite what virtually every report I've seen about Home Server says, Microsoft
will make two versions available: Software-only, which you can install on your
own PC or server hardware, and as a bundle with Home Server-specific hardware.
This, too, makes the product more valuable.

Hungarian Notation Creator Heads to Space Charles Simonyi, the Hungarian-born
ex-Microsoft developer responsible for the so-called Hungarian Notation style
of programming, will soon rocket into space onboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship.
The self-described "space nerd" has been training for months, and he paid a $20
million fee to become the 450th person in space. Or, as he calls it, "the first
nerd in space." Dr. Simonyi and his crew will blast off on Saturday and spend
ten days at the International Space Station. Now, that's what I call a vacation
with a view.

Microsoft Threatens Poster of Vista SP1 Info This is a weird one: Last week, a
blogger named Ethan Allen posted a list of the 100-plus hot-fixes and patches
that Microsoft plans to ship as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), due
later this year. He claimed that the list was mostly derived from Microsoft's
publicly available knowledge base (KB) articles, though it has never been
assembled in a single place as he did on his site. He also supplied a download
of the fixes, which he called the Vista SP1 Preview. Microsoft was not amused.
The company sent Allen a cease and desist order, for some reason, and demanded
that the blogger remove his "unauthorized redistribution of [Microsoft's] hot
fixes." More problematically, from my perspective, is that Microsoft program
manager Nick White was harshly critical of Allen's list in the Windows Vista
blog on the Microsoft Web site. I find that offensive: Allen is an enthusiast
trying to help people, and the way he's rewarded is with a legal threat and a
dismissive mention in a Microsoft-run Web site. Bravo, Microsoft. What's next?
Do you think you could just tar and feather the guy while you're at it?

The Truth About Vista SP1
I'm tired of Microsoft's insane posturing about Windows Vista SP1. I've written
about this before, but it bears repeating. Every single time Vista SP1 comes
up, some representative from Microsoft--all the way up to CEO Steve Ballmer, by
the way, who has done this twice in public--acts as if the company has no idea
when it will ship SP1 or what features it will include. That is not true.
Microsoft will ship Windows Vista SP1 concurrently with Longhorn Server in Q3
2007 and SP1 will include a major kernel update for Vista that will bring the
client OS up to speed with the version of the Windows kernel in Longhorn
Server. That has been the plan for quite a while, and they all know it. Why the
company can't just say, "We'd rather not discuss SP1 at this time" is beyond
me. Instead, they're simply lying, and for no good reason. And that's not
right, especially when there are millions of customers waiting on this release
to upgrade. You'd think a company that supposedly cares about transparency as
much as Microsoft would realize when they're being so, well, transparent.

And What About Windows XP Service Pack 3? And while I'm ranting a bit, let's
dredge up Windows XP Service Pack 3, which was delayed from 2005 to 2006 to
2007 and now to 2008. If you were looking for any glimpse into the mind of
Microsoft, this is it: The company has completely abandoned Windows XP, and it
has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3. My guess is that Microsoft will
do what it did with the final Windows 2000 Service Pack: Claim years later that
it's no longer needed and just ship a final security patch roll-up. This is the
worst kiss-off to any Microsoft product I've ever seen, and you'd think the
company would show a little more respect to its best-selling OS of all time.
But the reality is, Microsoft is looking ahead to new revenue and not behind to
money that's already in the bank. And though hundreds of millions of people
will be running XP for years to come, despite Microsoft's best efforts at
selling them a later Windows version, the company has absolutely no plans to
actually support those customers. This flies in the face of its publicly-stated
life cycle support plans. And it really freaks me out. It should freak you out
as well....
===

The comment about no service pack 3 for Microsoft Windows XP looks ominous as
well.   Is Microsoft in self-destruct mode?


  /m

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