Yet Another Microsoft Catastrophe

As all GOOD Systems Administrators know, You never touch any new product from Microsoft for at least the first year. At least that was the saying back in the old days. Recent opinion is don't touch it until they release service pack one. That way (cross your fingers) most of the security flaws and glaring non-functional items would be fixed before your desktop users were exposed to it. I'm sure most of us remember the hastles with SP1 for Windows XP. I had one system I had to downgrade to Win2000 because the Windows XP SP1 killed it, and Microsoft couldn't fix it.

Well, now SP1 for Windows Vista has been released to manufacturers. End users probably won't be exposed to it for a few more weeks now, but the initial feedback from 'the net' isn't promising. The best results I've heard is an operational test system (see - in a closet). It took over an hour, and five reboots, but it still runs, reports Adrian. The poor guy (George) in the article I'm referencing killed his laptop, and broke his desktop computer. Actually, that's why Adrian installed SP1 on a test system, because he didn't want to crash his 'in production' systems.

So.. once again Microsoft has flubbed up their initial service pack release. I'm not terribly surprised. I still refuse to support Vista, if I can get away with it. I've had a few clients purchase laptops with it, and none of them are happy. I'll just pat myself on the back, since I was smart enough not to implement it yet. The question is, should we change the industry standard, and wait for service pack 2 before implementing Microsoft solutions? I get throbbing headaches when I do a rollout, then five minutes later my phone starts ringing off the hook with reports of broken desktops.

I suppose this would be a good place to insert a promo for my favorite flavor of Linux, but I'll restrain myself, since all you need to do is read my blog to find out all you need to know on that subject. ;)

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