Vista SP1 Coming, But Not with Features?
August 30th, 2007I just read this quote from a new Slashdot listing.
Many readers sent in word of Microsoft's announcement of the schedule for Vista SP1. The Beskerming blog has a good summary. Up to 15,000 people will get access to a beta of SP1 by the end of September; general release is targeted (not promised in stone) for early 2008. The service pack is said to improve performance and stability, not to add features.
I have to take issue with the last sentence. Performance and stability are features, as is security. Whoever makes the distinction that flashy visual effects and sidebar widgets are features while a responsive user experience is not should have a sit-down with several Vista users. Would you live in a house that exhibited questionable stability? Would you be impressed with a new bathroom in that house if you could not get hot water half of the time?
[Update 9/8/2007]
In response to the comments below I would like to respond with a couple of my problems with Vista. The implication from Chris is that there have been absolutely no problems with Vista. The added screenshot below should be evidence enough that there have a significant number of fixes to Vista problems. And I happen to come across my own Vista problems regularly.
First, I am running Vista on a new desktop from Dell that is less than two months old. I constantly experience strange problems that should have been resolved long ago. One problem is not being able to edit text files using Notepad2 in folders that I do have the necessary rights. And second, I am constantly prompted multiple times to carry out actions. Prompting me once to start a process is annoying enough as it is when Vista should be able to distinguish between a real user physically sitting at the computer controlling the keyboard and mouse and a malware thread hidden with a Windows Media codec. It would not have to prompt me at all if that basic tenet of authentication and authorization was handled in the design of Vista. I am sure it is a result of compromising with the legacy of Windows and DOS that they have been dragging along all these years. Back in 1999 when Apple stopped development on their legacy OS with MacOS 9 and created MacOS X on top of a Unix subsystem they were able to address all of the modern security concerns in the age where your computer is constantly connected to an untrusted public internet. Vista could have made the same leap, building many of the critical systems on top of .NET with managed code which would enhance security automatically.
Many the annoyances of Vista are small but they compound the user experience. And to make it worse the constant updates for security, performance and stability upgrades keep my expectations of Vista at a low level. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. See below for my recent update history in Vista. Notice the many security updates that are marked as important. And the other updates are generally related to stability and reliability problems.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I have to wonder if they aren't pushing this service pack out so quickly, and without "features" (I agree with your sentiments of course), because of all the people who, like me, say "I'm not even thinking about switching to Vista until SP1." Makes sense from a business standpoint. On the other hand, Microsoft has become quite cutting edge when it comes to responding to feedback from their user communities.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:03 am
Of course, it's also the people who say that who have never tried it
September 7th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Could it be the average computer user only views things they see as features? Security and Stability aren't features to the average computer user; those are things that just are there and the average user doesn't even realize it. Just a thought as to maybe why they worded it that way.
By the way, what problems have you had with Vista? I've been running it since it RTM'd and it works perfectly, even better than XP did on the same box (Specs: Vista x64, Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2GB DD2 800 and NVidia GeForce 6600 w/ 256MB Video Ram).
September 8th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
See the update for my response to the comments.
Also, consider that safety and performance are critical features in cars these days. They drive sales of modern vehicles. And you often see faster performance cited with a new software release. It is a feature along with security and stability, but they should be automatic features. Together these three should trump all other "features" in Vista. Without them nobody will want to use Vista. And just because Vista is good on one PC does not mean it is not a burden on others. PCs are much more diverse than hardware such as the XBox. And we have seen how Microsoft has had difficulty with their own hardware.
October 9th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Amen to the Xbox problems.