Tag: windows vista

No SP3 for Windows XP until late 2007

Post ImageI’m not sure this date will remain final, but Microsoft has announced that the release date for Windows XP Service Pack 3 is not until the second half of 2007. Apparently most people anticipated having SP3 a lot sooner than that:

Microsoft also has published “latter half of 2006” as the tentative release date for the second service pack for Windows Server 2003. The “preliminary” due date for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) date jibes with what industry experts were expecting.

Microsoft has not made public an official list of planned fixes (and new features, if any) that will be part of either the Windows Server 2003 SP2 or Windows XP SP3 releases.

I realize that SP3 is important for business customers who aren’t going to upgrade, but I will for sure be running Windows Vista by the time XPSP3 is released. That said, the best part of these news stories isn’t future planning but spreading rumors:

Microsoft officials attributed some of the delays in Longhorn/Windows Vista to SP2. Officials claimed the company’s decision to reassign developers working on Vista to finishing and testing SP2 had a negative impact on Vista’s schedule.

It is unclear if Microsoft is pushing back SP3’s delivery date in order to avoid a similar negative impact on Vista’s schedule. It’s also unclear whether Microsoft may be holding back SP3 in order to help stimulate upgrade demand for Vista.

True or not, there will undoubtedly be a “respectable” media outlet or two that will pick up on that as fact.

I guess when you think about it, 2007 is a long time though. If Vista really does ship this year like Microsoft says, I’d almost expect a service pack for it to be released in the second half of 2007. As I mentioned earlier today, I think Windows XP SP2 is pretty solid – maybe the “way out there” release date for SP3 is simply a reflection of that?! Not that you’d ever read that in the media.

Read: Microsoft Watch

Windows Vista at CES

It’s that time of year again, when all the electonics manufacturers get together at CES to show off their new wares. Microsoft is busy at the show this year too, showing off some of the new capabilities of Windows Vista. Bringing Vista to life is a short but interesting video that shows off some of the features coming in Vista:

Be one of the first to see Windows Vista in use as Gates and Microsoft Group Product Manager Aaron Woodman show off the slick new OS during the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.

Aaron shows the live previewing, Flip 3D application switching, the Sidebar with Gadgets, and the new Sideshow feature for notebooks. In another Microsoft video, Bill Gates shows off part of his vision for the digital future. It’s a very cool video – I love the screens!!

UPDATE: The blogosphere is buzzing about Bill Gates’ speech at CES. Watch the entire keynote online!

ClearType

Post ImageI’ve been having problems with my tablet the last couple days – something is wrong with the power supply (not the cord, but where the cord plugs in). As a result, I setup the spare tablet (the one that was in the Podbot) to use. There’s lots of little things that get setup over time, and you don’t realize they are there until you no longer have them! There was one thing I noticed was missing right away on the new tablet though – ClearType.

If you don’t currently have ClearType enabled in your computer, stop reading this and go enable it! I couldn’t believe the difference when I first logged into a new profile on the new tablet. All of my other computers have had ClearType enabled for a long time, so I have become used to it. Looking at the screen without ClearType made me think that something was wrong. Fortunately it only took me a minute of confusion before I realized that ClearType isn’t enabled by default. Wondering what ClearType is? From the Microsoft site:

ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

ClearType works by accessing the individual vertical color stripe elements in every pixel of an LCD screen. Before ClearType, the smallest level of detail that a computer could display was a single pixel, but with ClearType running on an LCD monitor, we can now display features of text as small as a fraction of a pixel in width. The extra resolution increases the sharpness of the tiny details in text display, making it much easier to read over long durations.

I find it makes a difference even on CRT monitors, but it definitely is superior on an LCD.

I wonder what the ClearType story is for Windows Vista? With vectorized graphics, I don’t know how necessary it will be. If it makes a difference though, let’s hope it’s enabled by default!

Read: ClearType

Don't Wait for Vista

Post ImageMy friend Kevin recently posted about how impressed he has been with the Windows XP experience (he switched over from Apple). No matter your religious affiliation, it’s hard to ignore that XP is a very stable, solid operating system, and the upcoming Windows Vista will only build on that. In fact, Vista looks so promising that the Gartner Group has changed their original advice:

Gartner Group has clarified its advice for when users should consider moving to Microsoft Vista, saying that organizations still running Windows 2000 should consider upgrading as soon as Vista ships.

Previously, Gartner had advised that “companies shouldn’t rush to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista” and that “most firms could safely hold back until 2008.”

I was impressed with how stable the Beta 1 release was, at least as far as the fundamentals are concerned. I am really looking forward to Beta 2. And seriously, 2008? Five years has been long enough without a new version of Windows, thank you very much.

Read: CNET News.com