I’m Confused

Thursday, March 5, 2009 in Microsoft by slowe | 12 comments

I’m confused. I know, that’s not a terribly difficult thing to do some days. I saw this article on the Windows Server Division weblog about the Release Candidate of SP2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista and I asked myself, “Did I miss SP1 for Windows Server 2008? I don’t recall hearing about the release of SP1. I guess I should go download it.”

So I did a little bit of digging and found this article—now over a year old, so you can see clearly that I haven’t been paying attention—that states that Microsoft tagged the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) build of Windows Server 2008 as SP1. So, there won’t be an SP1 for Windows Server 2008, and instead Microsoft will jump directly to SP2.

Here’s the great part. Check out this quote from that same ZDnet article:

“(I)n retrospect i should just say its called (Windows Server 2008 SP1) so you don’t have to wait for SP1 for it to be right like people have before.”

Huh? Microsoft is now tagging RTM builds as SP1, and then telling customers that just because it’s marked SP1 it’s ready? What’s next? Are we going to start tagging beta builds as GA code? Good Lord, people…can we get back to some sort of product naming convention that makes sense and that we’re willing to actually follow?

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  1. st’s avatar

    st on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:10 am

    Obviously you haven’t been around Windows very long. NT4 (Workstation & Server) was SP1 out of the box too.

  2. undrwatr’s avatar

    undrwatr on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:17 am

    From my understanding they did that to correspond with the release of SP1 for Vista. Since 2008 and Vista both have the same core code, they didn’t want them to get out of sync. It would seem odd if both systems have the same code yet one has SP1 and the other doesn’t, then everyone would ask where is SP1 for 2008?

  3. Roadfox’s avatar

    Roadfox on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:24 am

    Completely agree, but it’s not just Microsoft, why the heck do we get ESX 3.5.0 U1, U2, U3? I mean at lest new features like Storage VMotion or Enhanced Vmotion Compatibilty shoul change version to 3.6 – 3.7 or at least 3.5.1, 3.5.2 .
    What do we see next? 7.0 Release 2 Update 5 Patch 0.3

  4. Steve G’s avatar

    Steve G on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:26 am

    Hi Scott,

    Windows Server 2008 is the same codebase as Vista SP1. As such it is actually “Windows 6″ SP1, they haven’t just made it up for a laugh.

    Steve

  5. Luke Williams’s avatar

    Luke Williams on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:30 am

    I don’t really think they are trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes about SP1 making the OS reliable. The way I understand it is that Vista and 2008 are from the same code-base to the point that they have shared service packs. Vista SP1 RTMed around the same time as WS 2008 (SP1). When SP2 is released, it will cover both OSes.

    With the current perception of Vista, they probably aren’t touting the fact that 2008 is built on the same code-base any more than required. This blog post explains it a lot better and appears to be where the ZDNet blog derived it’s content…

    http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald/archive/2008/02/15/windows-server-2008-is-called-sp1-adventures-in-doing-things-right.aspx

  6. Philip’s avatar

    Philip on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:37 am

    This is the same company that has 6 versions of the desktop OS. Its all about the marketing slant now – remember “moist and chewy??”

  7. Mr. X’s avatar

    Mr. X on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:45 am

    Yes, this was announced back when Server 2008 was released. It’s possible they were being brash, but this is my take: the code base for Vista and 2008 was the same, but either Vista happened to be ready sooner or Vista served as a guinea pig for the code base for 2008.

    We’re not running 2008 at our place yet but I have yet to hear anything substantially bad about it, other than features that should have been there, such as Computer Management of remote servers (which *will* be there in 2008 R2).

    If 2008 had had stability problems, it would have been egg on their face, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

  8. Mike Laverick’s avatar

    Mike Laverick on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:48 am

    Yeah, I know. My joke was… you know how we used to say with all MS products “wait for SP1 before deploying”. Well, you gonna have to re-think that strategy, to “waiting until SP2 comes out before deploying”. MS should just throw the towel in a take a leaf out of Google Mail – perpetual beta…. I guess the next step is so called “experimental support”. What it means is “here’s this crazy new feature we could find QA funds for, so go ahead and use it – it should work, but if it screws up – please don’t call us…”

  9. slowe’s avatar

    slowe on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 10:58 am

    ST,

    Actually, I was a beta tester for Windows 95 and earned my first MCSE for Windows NT 3.51, so I’ve been around a bit. :-) I don’t remember the SP1 thing for NT4, but that’s been…almost 13 years now?

    Roadfox,

    Agreed, I’m not terribly happy about Update 1 and Update 2 designations, either.

    Mike,

    LOL, experimental support…that’s a VMware thing!

    All others,

    Yeah, I know that WS2008 and Vista share the same code base and that they have shared service packs moving forward–but I still fundamentally disagree with the designation of the RTM/GA build of a product being marked as SP1.

  10. Nate’s avatar

    Nate on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 10:55 am

    The “you don’t have to wait for SP1 for it to be right” bit is obviously just a joke. I think you are blowing it a little out of proportion, along with the issue you take on the naming convention. To me it makes more sense to get the products on the same naming level than it does to adhere to the RTM convention. Since the code base is SP1, Windows 2008 is really SP1 anyways. It’s not like they have an RTM code base that they’ve slapped the SP1 label on. As I see it they are using a naming strategy that makes things more straightforward, not confusing. I’m not sure what your fundamental disagreement is with.

  11. slowe’s avatar

    slowe on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    Nate,

    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you don’t think it’s a big deal, fine. I find it interesting and worth calling out.

    I would disagree with you regarding the SP1 code base–despite the fact that Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 share a common code base, they are not the same product. There are features and functions built into Windows Server 2008 that simply are not found in the Windows Vista code, and that makes Windows Server 2008 RTM, not SP1. Calling it “SP1″ doesn’t change the fact that it’s new code that was just released.

    Thanks for reading and commenting!

  12. MattW’s avatar

    MattW on Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 11:03 pm

    Used to be I’d wait for SP2 before buying / upgrading to any windows products. That was the “word on the street” for years. I guess the word now needs to be “Wait for SP3 before moving to MS product X”

    This is what happens when marketing types drive a company. The truth is the first casualty.