Forget big service packs for Vista
If you expect Windows Vista’s service packs to be as substantial as XP’s were, then you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. Speaking to a group of financial analysts earlier this week, Michael Sievert, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Windows Marketing said that consumers should not expect service packs for the operating system to include several new features and updates. Why? Because Vista is “high quality right out of the gate,” he said.
That’s not to say service packs for the shiny new operating system won’t be released-they will-but they will not be nearly as sizable as previous ones such as Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2. Windows XP Service Pack 2, for instance, added features to the operating system such as Internet Explorer’s pop-up blocker, Bluetooth support, and the Windows Firewall. Sievert doesn’t expect Vista’s service packs to have those types of features mainly because most people should have already downloaded them through Windows Update. “They (service packs) have a different level of importance today as people get their updates in real-time using Windows Update,” said Sievert.
Sievert also cited new development tools and processes that Microsoft used to create Vista as other reasons for the lack of a “killer” service pack. One process that Microsoft heavily relied on was the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), which has led some to say that this is the reason behind Vista’s “most secure operating system ever” branding. The process consists of developer training, the use of tools to discover vulnerabilities and code flaws, attack surface and inter-procedural analysis, threat modeling, and external code review with outside companies. Because Vista has been put through this entire cycle, people within Microsoft argue that it is without question the most secure operating system on the market.
Tags: Internet, Microsoft, new_operating_system, pack_2_windows, pack_2_windows_xp, secure_operating_system, service_pack_2, service_pack_2_windows_xp, Windows, windows update, windows vista, windows xp
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