Beta of XP update made public
Microsoft on Tuesday said it will make publicly available a beta version of Windows XP Service Pack 3. But, like a car salesman pitching the new Corvette over the old jalopy, Microsoft argued that a switch to Vista is the better move.
"While Windows Vista provides the most advanced security and management capabilities of any Windows operating system, Windows XP SP3 will ensure PCs running Windows XP will have the latest updates, as well as compatibility with the Network Access Protection functionality of Windows Server 2008," Microsoft said in a statement.
Lest anyone misread that as an endorsement, Microsoft goes on to say that "Windows XP SP3 does not bring significant portions of Windows Vista functionality to Windows XP."
The service pack has already been delayed several times as Microsoft has put its focus on getting Vista out the door and then updating that release.
Microsoft issued a release candidate version of XP SP3 in November and expanded its testing earlier this month, promising the public test version would come at some later date.
For anyone who still wants to try the darn thing, Microsoft says, the beta should be up on Microsoft's Web site later Tuesday and ready in final form in the first half of next year.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
I sure hope this is true. I don't want Vista functionality. I only have a gig of ram on my laptop.
Vista is fine. Been using it on a day to day basis for 9 months or more. It works, and since the compatibility updates a few months back, as good as XP. Now with SP1(beta), fools like you need to go away.
Is the 'WOW' there? Not really. But a decent update it is.
Personally, I just installed the 30-day trial version of Vista on my parent's computer, and I am liking it thus far...... it boots even faster than XP (yeah, I said it, because I TIMED it before I installed Vista over XP Media Center Edition and it does boot up faster), hasn't crashed once after I deleted some folders in Users\"User"\Appdata that were locked for some reason and messed up some other program (Microsoft, if you read this, FIX THIS PROBLEM!!), and my games play FASTER on Vista for some reason (they are all older games, so maybe Vista has some optimizations built-in for them).
Hey Microsoft, you'd have to pay me 3k or more for me to actually use Vista - that's the cost of a halfway decent gaming rig running Vista that'll match the performance of my current XP rig.
I remember a week after XP came out I was playing with XP at a retail store on a celeron laptop with integrated graphics and it took THREE seconds to open a contextual menu of the desktop. While Vista doesn't run well on low end hardware, I have never seen any machine that met the sys requirements that ran that bad. While there is some hardware that doesn't work the percentage is far lower than M$'s critics claim. I have gotten complete functionality of HP Laserjet 5's to work with Vista! There are even unofficial 3dfx drivers for Vista nevermind I doubt anyone with 7 year old hardware would run Vista.
I expect after SP1 that Vista adoption will grow exponentially amongst those that aren't running [fill in the blank $500+ software package that isn't supported under Vista]. SP1 significantly improves many, but not all of the IO issues. Furthermore, RAM is cheap. You are starting to see 4GB for less than $100! The hardware to make Vista purr for basic use is rapidly falling below $500 and the hardware to satisfy all except the most demanding high end user is now below $1000.
Business users don't immediately adopt new software until they feel compelled to upgrade or there are features that would increase productivity in the new version. Third party software will only go so far into extending XPs viability. There are some third party drivers for the Geforce 8400/8600 for laptops, but I would be surprised if you can find drivers for new laptop hardware that will come out next year. At some point installing XP and being able to use all of the hardware may be next to impossible. Nobody will put a gun to your head, but you will definitely want to run Vista on any new laptop come a year from now unless it is a Mac or you are going to be running Linux on the laptop.
Will there be people who will cling onto their old computer for ten years until the thing doesn't boot anymore? Sure, there are sadistic people that are clinging onto their Windows ME machines too. At some point they become such an unimportant demographic that nobody will support the OS anymore. XP will enjoy fairly robust industry support for at least another 2-3 years. Beyond that all bets are off.
why would they make it so hard for consumers to upgrade (oops sorry, DOWNGRADE)to vista! most pc's or laptops made before 2005 arent able to use it!
besides, it sucks anyways...
Eventually applications will come out that will be optimized for Vista and 64bit computing, but thats probably a year or two off ane even then you may not find a compelling reason to upgrade.
Currently Windows XP Pro is the best windows available.
- XP is still better
- by stockyjoe January 2, 2008 4:04 AM PST
- And I have Vista at work, in a network environement. I can tell you from experience that Vista offers no compelling reason to upgrade from XP Pro and secondly, Vista has some serious flaws and compatability issues. The copy/move files ability in Vista is broke. Its extremely slow especially when transferrring a lot of files across network drives. MDC tools to manage users in an active directory network is broken and so much more. Shall I go on...
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(42 Comments)Maybe you are the Hillbilly.