Thanks me101 who tipped me off on this one and was unable to post this himself. Industry sources close to Microsoft's plans say that certain OEMs will be proved with service pack one as early as the end of this month.
System integrators have wanted Microsoft to introduce the service pack for some time. At a system builder conference in Monaco earlier this year, Microsoft was suggesting that it could arrive in September.
But, we are told, Microsoft is being forced to ship the product earlier than it wished to because of problems OEMs and integrators have encountered.
Those include factors such as the re-activation nightmare that our own Asian editor experienced when substituting 1066RDRAM for 800MHz RDRAM in Intel own motherboards.
And also includes the blue screen of death error due to registry problems that we reported over the weekend.
Microsoft will offer several version of SP-1, one of which is likely to be a massive 600MB of patch code.
News source: The Inquirer
System integrators have wanted Microsoft to introduce the service pack for some time. At a system builder conference in Monaco earlier this year, Microsoft was suggesting that it could arrive in September.
But, we are told, Microsoft is being forced to ship the product earlier than it wished to because of problems OEMs and integrators have encountered.
Those include factors such as the re-activation nightmare that our own Asian editor experienced when substituting 1066RDRAM for 800MHz RDRAM in Intel own motherboards.
And also includes the blue screen of death error due to registry problems that we reported over the weekend.
Microsoft will offer several version of SP-1, one of which is likely to be a massive 600MB of patch code.
OK, maybe that's slightly unfair. The patch from Windows Update will take a couple of MBs. The patch for administrators will take 120MB, Then there's the complete install (550MB+) with the patches inside.
The full caboodle is expected to ship with new PCs really soon, we understand.
And the new version will need a new product key because of those Dell pirates that circulated around this time last year.
Said one source close to the plans: "If Longhorn is not shipped next year on a DVD disk, I will eat a raw sheep with my bare hands and bucket of humous through a straw."

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