Microsoft relents: Vista SP1 available to technical users now

On February 11, responding to customer unrest, Microsoft announced it will make Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 available earlier than it originally promised.

Originally, the earliest anyone was going to be able to get the bits labeled as final was mid-March, even though Microsoft actually released-to-manufacturing (RTM) the code on February 4.

On February 11, Microsoft announced an about-face in its planned rollout schedule. Microsoft has made the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) build of SP1 available to individual who participated in the SP1 beta program, as of "late Friday" (February 8). At the end of this week, Microsoft will make the English version of Vista SP1 available to its volume-licensing customers, with other languages to follow "soon after." And some time later this month, Microsoft will make the final SP1 bits available to its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet Plus subscribers.

Mid-March is still the date when Microsoft is planning to make SP1 broadly available to customers who are less technically savvy, according to a new posting on the Windows Vista Team blog. And it sounds like there's no change in the targeted availability date -- April -- when PC makers will start offering the final SP1 bits preloaded on new machines.

Many tech enthusiasts and some corporate customers were unhappy with the original availability schedule that Microsoft outlined on February 4. Microsoft originally said customers would have to wait more than a month to get the final Vista SP1 bits. Microsoft cited driver-compatibility issues as the reason it was delaying availability.

(By the way, the last Vista SP1 test build and the final RTM build are the same, in spite of having different build numbers.)

While it's good Microsoft is listening to customers, I have to say the company's disclosure policy on SP1 -- from start to finish -- has been rather convoluted. But at least customers are finally getting the SP1 bits that many have been awaiting.