Well, I thought that this was big news!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love new tech.  Sometimes, I just can’t get it to work…

…but that’s just me.

So I see this article about XP SP3 being quietly field tested by 15000 willing crash test dummies (I use that term endearingly BTW).  In the article it claims that test show a 10% improvement performance boost for MS Office apps running under XP SP3.  Nice.  Meanwhile, SP1 for Vista appears to offer little if any performance boost for the new OS.  Doh!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love new tech.  Sometimes, I just don’t get the point…

…but that’s just me.

I know that the migration to Vista is supposed to be inevitable and I really, really thought that after SP1 comes out that most, if not all driver issues would be resolved and then I could begin researching all of the goodies for a new PC build.  But I find me asking myself one question…”is it worth it to spend all that money for state-of-the-moment hardware in order to have my new OS perform at a relative speed comparable to my 4 year old single core PC?”  OK, maybe not that bad, but maybe I should consider the new build around XP?  Considering the release of SP3 maybe the old OS is destined to hang around a little longer than anticipated (like it hasn’t already, right?).  MS is not only keeping XP on life support but is actually improving it!  I don’t get it!  XP appears to be a “dead man walking”…and yet?!

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love new tech.  Sometimes, I just get this feeling that something is not quite right…

…but that’s just me.

Could it be that MS taken Vista down a similar path (so to speak) that Intel took with the P4?  Could it be that maybe MS has already seen the wall that Vista is going to hit?  I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist or anything like that but sometimes things happen that make you go, hmmm.  Another article that I read on the subject (which I cannot find to link to right now) hinted that along with all of the bug fixes/patches that SP3 will incorporate it would also add a few general performance improvements as well.  What if DirectX 10 support was included?  What would you say to that?  I haven’t actually seen that DirectX 10 will be offered for XP but I can dream can’t I?  MS has already extended support for XP for another five years and will continue to offer it for sale until June ’08. 

On one hand what’s not to like about XP? (That’s a rhetorical question, BTW)  Anyone from a preschooler to an octogenarian is familiar with it and can use it.  Hackers and malware scripters love it.  A whole cottage industry is dependent on XP’s flaws and other vulnerabilities for their continued existence.  The bottom line is that it works quite well for most purposes.  On the other hand, it can’t last forever.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love new tech.  Sometimes, I just think that someone put lipstick on a pig and called it something else…

…but that’s just me.

I don’t necessarily resist new stuff, however, I patiently waited for a year after XP came out before I jumped in, head first, after the release of SP1 in September ’02 and I have never looked back.  I thought I would do the same with Vista but, if you’re still with me, you can see that I have my doubts.  If Vista were truly a whole new OS then why can it be installed over XP with and upgrade disc?  That’s the pig with the lipstick right there, IMO. 

What I’d love to see is for MS to make XP open source.  However, I doubt we’ll ever see that day.  But I digress…

I believe that the news concerning XP SP3 maybe a little bigger than the coverage it got.  I believe that Vista has fallen way short of its expectations and promised performance.  Does Vista really give you $200 worth of improvements and performance gains over XP?  I doubt it.  I don’t want to be anti-Vista but from what little I’ve messed around with a Vista PC I fail to see any big reason to switch at this time.  I’ll make a prediction here, I’ll bet that come June ’08 we’ll see another extension of XP disc sales and support from MS because there are going to be others who will also fail to see gains from the “upgrade” to Vista.  In order to keep users from jumping to Apple or any of the various Linux distros MS will need to do something in order to keep the faithful, faithful.  By continuing to support and improve upon XP MS might just be doing what they need to do until they release a truly fast and robust OS to replace XP and Vista. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love new tech.  Sometimes, I just have a hard time seeing it…

…but that’s just me.