Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Is On The Way

Actually, so is Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). The word on the street has waivered between rumors of late 2007 and early 2008 for official release of either. The Windows Vista SP1 is in a limited Beta version right now, with plans to open it to a wider public Beta audience by the end of the year. I haven't seen a status on XP SP3 other than a statement from the Windows development team that Vista is the higher priority. Why should you care? How does this impact life in general?
Well, it would probably be melodramatic to suggest it will impact life in general, but it will have some impact on the world of operating systems, and possibly on you. The Windows XP service pack will largely be a roll-up of all patches and updates that have been released since SP2. There are quite a few, so that is not a small deal. Right now, users who install Windows XP SP2 are still quite vulnerable and, for home users in particular, that generally means spending a great deal of time with your vulnerable system connected to the Internet while you download all of the current updates and patches. Windows XP SP3 will allow users to install a more secure version of XP from the start.
As for Vista, one impact will probably be wider adoption of the operating system by enterprises. People always say you should wait for the second or third model year when a new car is produced, or wait for the next generation of technology when some whizbang gadget {cough}iPhone{cough} comes out so that the bugs can be worked out. Many organizations take this point of view when it comes to new operating systems. The release of SP1 will signal a level of maturity that will let more companies take the operating system seriously and upgrade their systems. There are some changes and updates, and the service pack will contain the patches and updates to date, but there probably won't be any significant changes to Vista's functionality. You can check out Paul Thurrott's Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Revealed for a look under the hood at what to expect.