Thanks Tech001101. Hype and deployments should never be mixed to achieve a recipe for avoiding disaster. Sophos told eWeek that they, unlike most home users, are not eager to deploy XPSP2 and here's why.
Microsoft may have delayed Windows XP Service Pack 2 yet again this week, but IT managers are, in any case, not exactly champing at the bit to roll out the security-oriented update.
The most eager IT departments contacted by eWEEK.com said they would deploy SP2 only after extensive testing. Others said the update was not a priority or they weren't running Windows XP in the first place. Despite the hype around SP2 and the expected benefits, IT managers said the difficulty of the installation process means they are taking a gradual approach.
"Sooner or later Sophos will have to roll out Windows XP SP2—it's just not something we consider a very high priority presently," said a representative of U.K.-based Sophos Antivirus. "We will only do it when we are confident the time is right and we can do it properly."
This caution is exactly what Microsoft says it has been trying to impress upon customers. "Enterprises should approach their deployment of Windows XP Service Pack 2 with the same rigor as they do any normal operating system software rollouts," said Windows client product manager Janet Gibbons. "We advise testing SP2 in a nonproduction environment and working with Microsoft or its partners to plan its deployment around their networks."
She confirmed that SP2 hasn't yet been released to manufacturing, but said Microsoft is still "on track" for an August release. The company had hoped to wrap up work on SP2 this week but decided more work was needed to ensure quality. Most recently the update was delayed from June to July and from July to August.
View: The complete article at eWeek
View: Neowin - Windows XP SP2 Delayed...again
News source: eWeek
Microsoft may have delayed Windows XP Service Pack 2 yet again this week, but IT managers are, in any case, not exactly champing at the bit to roll out the security-oriented update.
The most eager IT departments contacted by eWEEK.com said they would deploy SP2 only after extensive testing. Others said the update was not a priority or they weren't running Windows XP in the first place. Despite the hype around SP2 and the expected benefits, IT managers said the difficulty of the installation process means they are taking a gradual approach.
"Sooner or later Sophos will have to roll out Windows XP SP2—it's just not something we consider a very high priority presently," said a representative of U.K.-based Sophos Antivirus. "We will only do it when we are confident the time is right and we can do it properly."
This caution is exactly what Microsoft says it has been trying to impress upon customers. "Enterprises should approach their deployment of Windows XP Service Pack 2 with the same rigor as they do any normal operating system software rollouts," said Windows client product manager Janet Gibbons. "We advise testing SP2 in a nonproduction environment and working with Microsoft or its partners to plan its deployment around their networks."
She confirmed that SP2 hasn't yet been released to manufacturing, but said Microsoft is still "on track" for an August release. The company had hoped to wrap up work on SP2 this week but decided more work was needed to ensure quality. Most recently the update was delayed from June to July and from July to August.
View: The complete article at eWeek View: Neowin - Windows XP SP2 Delayed...again News source: eWeek
Foremost among those features will be a league system similar to that of ESPN NFL 2K5. Although it won't be available until later in the year, the league system will allow online Premium Pass subscribers to create their own version of the NFL, by creating their own leagues and teams and scheduling their own playoffs and championship. "A lot of the Madden guys asked for a special place to compete," said Lange in a conversation with GameSpot. "The spirit of the PP is to design a group of users who are more serious than the average gamer."
The Premium Pass will also introduce other features during the course of the season, including enhanced Web tournaments, which will allow players to set up tournaments and follow their progress online, and Hall of Fame Web leaderboards, which will give subscribers their own leaderboard separate from the Madden Overall leaderboards.
At launch, Premium Pass subscribers will receive several benefits immediately, including a reputation rating boost, highlighted names, personalized career pages, expanded leaderboards, a customizable streaming sports ticker, an EA Sports calendar, exclusive Premium Pass message boards, and special "members only" medals (not to be confused with "members only" jackets). Subscribers will also have access to Madden University, an updated library of Madden tips and tactics and expanded customer support. They will also be able to register early for the Madden Challenge, the 32-city competition that determines the best Madden NFL player in the country.
For more details on the Premium Pack, go to the official Madden NFL 2005 Web site. The game is set to ship August 9 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and PC.
Dice Says: With the latest crave of online gaming! Madden 2005 will be another one into the list. This extreme 3D football game will surely attract lots of buyers and online gamers ;)
yes, we know.
Amen to that. My company will be very busy helping our customer base plan for, test, and roll-out this upgrade. I impress upon everyone I can the fact that this is essentially an OS upgrade, and not just a service pack. That said, I still think many businesses will be upgrading more quickly than this article leads us to believe.
I think Microsoft is going after consumers mostly with this, as your average corporate desktop is in more secure environment and presumably better managed environment security-wise than your average consumer PC.
The fact that it fails to boot on 3 out of 5 computers and has been delayed thrice due to quality control issues makes me think that there is more risk to installing it then possible benefit.
it's all fine you saying that but the dumb home users dont bother so need to be forced, and MS is heading in that direction it seems and about time.
Home users would benefit from SP2, but that would require them updating their system in the first place.
Note: Yes I know im a coward and you have every right to call me one, just don't go overboard
Having said that, my company is setting a mandated deployment date of about 2 months out to determine upgrade viability. In short, we're definitely going to deploy this update; it's really just a matter of meeting the prerequisites (app compatibility, etc). I'm sure any good IT dept would do the same. It's just a dfferent issue with this update, as it changes so many things at once.
Anyway, it looks like some people need to be whipped into shape/fired, whatever. This is a huge service pack, without a doubt the most important one MS has ever made. I love how everyone bitches about MS's security and then says "Meh, we'll update our computers when it's convenient to us, it's not important." Nice...
Edit: Let me just clarify, I strongly agree with testing any service pack before mass-deploying it on all your systems, that's fine, but that needs to be a BIG project with this service pack. The thing that annoys me is saying upgrading to SP2 "isn't important".
A corporate environment is not a home pc.
The bottom line is that this update needs to be installed on EVERYONE's computer, home users, corporate users, it doesn't matter.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default810.mspx
1) That poor soul, i really feel his pain.
2) Looky looky we have a new customer.
Installing this thing on one computer is fine, installing it on a large network and not running into issues is just dreaming.
I have to agree with this article.
We have to many older applications that might just not work with this Service Pack for me to just jump in and deploy it straight away. If I deployed it as quickly as possible with out extensive testing and those applications don't work after, it would mean I would lose my job, simple as that.
Besides its taken long enough for this Service Pack to come out as is, it can wait that bit longer to be installed on my machines while i test the thing.
If your a system administrator, and you have a Blaster, Sasser or any other type of work hit your network within the last 2 years, please step down from your position.
So they stop work on LongHorn and delayed it longer saying they wanted to get SP2 done for a non important update. Trustworthly computing sucks if this is the way they try to get people to trust them. Scareing people about secuirty then at the last mintue say it not important to update so delaying is no big deal.
However Bill Gates tells AP different story. "If we weren't viewing this as such a key priority, then we wouldn't be giving it away as a free thing," Gates said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Last edited by 50903 on 06 Aug 2004 - 10:59
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