Just days after Microsoft Corp. delivered a release candidate preview for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), it has quietly issued a similar milestone for Windows XP SP3 to about 15,000 testers, the company said.

The service pack, the last major update to the six-year-old operating system, is slated for release sometime in the first half of 2008. Microsoft has not been more specific than that six-month stretch, and Tuesday even took the time to remind everyone that the half-year window is not a lock. "We are targeting [the first half of] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM [release to manufacturing], though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority," a company spokesperson said.

As with Vista SP1, Microsoft at some point will offer a Windows XP SP3 beta to anyone who wants it, the spokesperson said. That timetable, however, was just as iffy as the final release's, with availability set only as "a later date."

Microsoft has said little about what will be in Windows XP SP3, and in general has been reluctant to even mention the update as it publicizes the progress of Vista SP1 in company blogs and regular communications with the press. Analysts have speculated that Microsoft, which has already made several XP-related concessions, including extending support for the aged OS and pushing the end of retail and OEM sales out five more months, wants to downplay SP3 to make sure it doesn't steal any more thunder from Windows Vista.

According to accounts published last month, XP SP3 will feature more than 1,000 hot fixes and patches that have been issued in the past three years, as well as at least four new features, some of which will be ports of Vista tools.

Windows XP debuted in October 2001 and was last updated as SP2 in August 2004.

정리하자면 다음과 같습니다.

 - MS는 예정대로 2008년 상반기중에 XP 서비스팩3 RTM 버전을 내놓을 것이다.

 - 특정 시점에 서비스팩3 공개 베타를 진행할 것이다.

 - MS는 그동안 XP 서비스팩3와 관련한 정보 공개가 비스타의 시장 점유율을 높이는 발목을 잡는

   요인이 될까 우려해 정보 공개에 대해 매우 인색했다.

 - XP 서비스팩3는 지난 3년간의 1000여개 이상의 버그 픽스를 포함할 것이며 비스타에 탑재된 기능을

   포함한 최소 4개이상의 새로운 기능을 제공할 것이다.

   (비스타의 네트워크 접근 보호 NAP를 말하는 듯 합니다. 그외는 MSN, 미디어 플레이어 11, 인터넷 익스플로러 7)

다음으로 관심이 가는 내용은 다음과 같습니다.

원문 URL : http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/

Windows XP SP3 Yields Performance Gains