-
Posts
-
Enhancements include a network access protection module that borrows from technology used in Windows Vista and improved support for cryptographic algorithms.
In yet another sign that Microsoft isn’t planning a retirement party for its Windows XP operating system any time soon, the company has released a new service pack for the Windows Vista predecessor.
Windows XP SP3, build 3205, has been released to beta testers and contains more than one thousand patches and hot fixes, according to bloggers at Neosmart.net. The build is available to beta testers for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 and has been published in English, German and Japanese language editions.The enhancements include a simplified activation system, a network access protection module that borrows from technology used in Windows Vista, and improved support for cryptographic algorithms.
The latest major update to the operating system, Windows XP SP2, was released more than three years ago.
Last week, Microsoft introduced a new licensing program designed to let users of fake or pirated copies of the business version of Windows XP upgrade to fully licensed copies.
Under the plan, called “Get Genuine Windows Agreement,” software resellers can offer to their business customers a volume licensing contract that will allow them to replace fake or “mislicensed” copies of Windows XP Professional with legitimate versions.
With ongoing support for Windows XP, Microsoft appears to be acknowledging the fact that many businesses are sticking with the OS, despite the widely hyped launch of Windows Vista in January. Last month, Microsoft said it would allow personal computer manufacturers to continue selling Windows XP through June 2008. The company originally planned to stop shipping the software to computer makers on Jan. 30.
Many commercial software buyers have railed against Windows Vista’s price and lack of compatibility with existing software, and system requirements that exceed the capabilities of PCs more than a couple of years old.
PC makers have responded to such concerns by continuing to push Windows XP, despite the millions of dollars that their partner in Redmond spent promoting Vista. Dell, Lenovo, and Hewlett-Packard have in recent weeks gone as far as offering customers discs that effectively let them “downgrade” their Windows Vista systems to Windows XP.
Come on the windows XP, life in the old dog still. Rather concerning to hear there is over 1000 patches/fixes for this, if that’s the case how vunerable is XP right now :shock: .
Sorry William, but you really need to start releasing better and more secure operating systems.From time to time I do some Beta testing for Uncle Bill. The so-called 1,000 ‘hotfixes’ are in the main all the existing fixes that are released every month via Windows Update.
All they have done is to collect them into one big upgrade and called it ‘SP3’. This effectively overwrites your current installation and replaces all the myriad updates with one big one.
As an incentive to take SP3, they are adding in some of the other features that currently only appear in the bloatware called Vista. Currently nobody wants Vista as it is far too resource greedy and loads of current Apps and Utilities won’t function properly with it.
Of course the hidden agenda is that it will only be available for download (or CD instal which I reccomend) if you have a legal (i.e. fully licenced) copy of Windows XP. If you have an unlicenced or pirated copy then Billy boy will try to persuade you to do the decent thing and cough up some dosh.
@forumhostpb wrote:
From time to time I do some Beta testing for Uncle Bill. The so-called 1,000 ‘hotfixes’ are in the main all the existing fixes that are released every month via Windows Update.
All they have done is to collect them into one big upgrade and called it ‘SP3’. This effectively overwrites your current installation and replaces all the myriad updates with one big one.
As an incentive to take SP3, they are adding in some of the other features that currently only appear in the bloatware called Vista. Currently nobody wants Vista as it is far too resource greedy and loads of current Apps and Utilities won’t function properly with it.
Of course the hidden agenda is that it will only be available for download (or CD instal which I reccomend) if you have a legal (i.e. fully licenced) copy of Windows XP. If you have an unlicenced or pirated copy then Billy boy will try to persuade you to do the decent thing and cough up some dosh.
EVERYONE who has ever bought ANY microsoft product does billies beta testing
Maybe i might even request a disc or 20.
I own a legit copy of windows, but i could do with some new tea mats :P@forumhostpb wrote:
From time to time I do some Beta testing for Uncle Bill. The so-called 1,000 ‘hotfixes’ are in the main all the existing fixes that are released every month via Windows Update.
All they have done is to collect them into one big upgrade and called it ‘SP3’. This effectively overwrites your current installation and replaces all the myriad updates with one big one.
As an incentive to take SP3, they are adding in some of the other features that currently only appear in the bloatware called Vista. Currently nobody wants Vista as it is far too resource greedy and loads of current Apps and Utilities won’t function properly with it.
Of course the hidden agenda is that it will only be available for download (or CD instal which I reccomend) if you have a legal (i.e. fully licenced) copy of Windows XP. If you have an unlicenced or pirated copy then Billy boy will try to persuade you to do the decent thing and cough up some dosh.
So when you say “overwrites your current installation” this doenst mean we will have to re-install all our files does it? Cant be bothered with that!
Ive heard nothing good about Vista either from the people I know who have it.
@sharongooner wrote:
So when you say “overwrites your current installation” this doenst mean we will have to re-install all our files does it? Cant be bothered with that!
Ive heard nothing good about Vista either from the people I know who have it.
No it isn’t like that. It won’t affect any of the files or Applications or Utilities currently instaled on your computer. It works the same way that Service Pack 2 did. It basically adds itself to your Operating System (thus upgrading it) and at the same time as it adds cumulative hotfixes – it removes those already installed over the months. You end up with a clean and upgraded OS.
If you remember when SP2 was released, loads of users had issues with downloading and installing it. The ”safe” way was to load it from the FREE CD that you can get either from Microsoft or from major computer retailers. I anticipate that SP3 will be dealt with in the same way.
Vista has not been well received to date. Those in the know will wait until a Service Pack is released AND until the software writers have supplied patches to make their Utilities and Applications work with Vista.
Currently loads of software will work with Vista, but often only with limited or reduced functionality.
Thats reassuring then. I will wait until others have installed it and see if its worth it then.
Thankyou! :wink:
On the vista thingy, a friend of mine from another phpbb board has it and ever since she got it she cannot participate on voting threads on the site (the option is not there for her) and lots of other little niggles too. People have tried to help her a lot, but it seems like a major flaw with the vista rather than the site.
Yes I also hear that there are many many issues with Vista – stuff not working etc etc.
Seems to me that there is nothing too much wrong with XP so if it ain’t broke …. don’t fix it/.
I shall certainly NOT be installing Vista for a years to come, if ever.
Seems that microsoft have a habit of releasing products that are way below the standard anyone would expect to see in a release candidate, they then rely on the beta testing done by customers who buy their unfinished bloatware so by the time one of their products is getting to the point where its reliability and functionality is what it should have been prior to release the next retail beta grade product is ready to replace it and start the process over again
But until more software developers release linux versions of their stuff people are to an extent tied to the dysfunctional dependance on billies bloatware
We are already rapidly approaching a point where the cost of the PC you buy will be less than the cost of the operating system you run on it, although I do suspect there is an organised symbiosis going on here too, where software companies deliberately nobble software to require new or more hardware to be bought and in turn hardware manufacturers constantly churn out often unneeded and unnecessary features in hardware that requires newer versions of software keeping a market that could and infact should be quite static constantly churning and bouyant with needs that arent or shouldnt actually be needed at all as much of the software is quite deliberately slowed down and innefficiently programmed so that a game or app that could easily run at excessive speed on a particular PC will hardly run at all without a processor, ram and even video card upgrade
And in the hardware arena, features that are described as making MASSIVE performance improvements but which infact often only give a fraction of a percent of improvement or just do something that preceeding hardware didnt, but which nobody would miss had it never been introduced then becomes the reason existing copies of software doesnt work as well as it could whereas the newer upgrade will do when infact the same hardware and firmware for it could in most cases have been coded more compatibly and the existing software (modular anyway) could have been written with a more open design model to allow for progression along a defined path with only a very small amount of modules being needed rather than an entire new version of the software
And so the two roll along each creating a market for the other which then reciprocates in kind ad infinitum
Everyone wins except the customer
Nice essay Uber – could you summarise it for us please?
Get involved in this discussion! Log in or register now to have your say!