Windows Vista SP1's error-filled saga

Windows Vista SP1’s rocky ride to market has no doubt turned the stomachs
of many advanced users.

The latest turn of events -- and to be sure, this journey changes course daily
-- has Microsoft recommending
workarounds for rebooting issues caused by a recent Windows Vista update
that was meant to prepare systems for SP1 -- which is supposed to happen in
mid-March.

Earlier this month, Microsoft had finalized Vista SP1 code and released it to
manufacturing. It also provided access to some testers and reviewers, but not
the usual broad list. That led some testers
and reviewers to grouse that they weren't in that coveted first distribution.
At the same time, other users started urging Microsoft to speed SP1 to market.
Microsoft complied, somewhat, and posted SP1 to Technet and MSDN, reaching a
broader set of advanced users.

That’s when the fun started. An SP1 update made available shortly after
that broader release of the manufacturing-ready SP1 code caused machines to
reboot and reboot and reboot. And so Microsoft
yanked it quickly.

In the meantime, those whose systems didn't suffer from endless-reboot syndrome
discovered that Vista SP1 didn't do much, if anything, to overcome its speed
woes: Early performance reviews were not encouraging: InfoWorld's tests showed
Vista SP1 to be up to 40
percent slower than Windows XP with SP3, while PC World's tests showed mixed
results.

To add insult to injury, an interim build of SP1 was inadvertently leaked to
some users via Microsoft's Windows Update software.

Who knows what the next week will bring?