Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Coming Q2

There is little doubt that Microsoft took some serious black eyes with the launch of Windows Vista. They failed to meet a stability and reliability mark that has haunted the OS. Microsoft has continued to battle that perception by spending over 300 million in advertising to improve the image of Windows via its Windows Without Walls, I'm a PC, and the Mojave Experiment campaigns.

However the biggest gain in perception is probably not all from advertising, but the timely updates to the OS. Microsoft delivered Service Pack 1 in February of 2008 and they look to be following it up with Service Pack 2 in just over one years time from the last service pack according to TechARP. They place the timing at or around April of 2009.

Ed Bott contends that this is Microsoft getting back on track. Microsoft had a rather lengthy time line to get out Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, but I would argue that they tried to do more than what any normal service pack had ever done with the introduction of the Windows Firewall and lots of new functionality that made its delivery exceptionally challenging. It was their own fault, but I have to cut them some slack for ambition.

If you assume that without the additional functionality that XP included in Service Pack 2 it would have had much more reasonable timeline then the next thing you will notice in Ed's timelines is that the real test for Windows Vista will come when the group that produces these (Sustained Engineering) is bogged down by a new OS, such as Windows 7.

As you can see in the chart the other lengthy delays occur when a Service Packs contends with a new OS. Resource allocation becomes tricky and the older OS loses much of its focus even though its the primary OS used outside Redmond.

Windows Vista Service Pack 3 will probably start to take shape mid to late next year just in time to contend for resources with Windows 7. As long as SP3 isn't targeted as a delivery vehicle for any back level porting then my prognostication is that SP3 will suffer the same lengthy delay that its predecessors have endured which means we won't see a SP3 until the end of 2010 maybe even 2011.

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