News

Fixes vs. Features:Microsoft Still Determining How to Handle OS Updates in Short Run

• By Scott Bekker
• 08/01/2000

“We haven’t locked down our plans yet,” says Mark Perry, director of marketing for Windows 2000 Server.

Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) officials say they are responding to several requests from end users. First, is that service packs arrive at predictable intervals.

“Roughly every six months is what they’re asking for,” Perry says. SP1 follows the Feb. 17 Windows 2000 launch by 5 ½ months, although it comes more than a month after it was first supposed to be available. “Our goal is to be more predictable on releasing service packs,” he said.

“The other thing is no new features in service packs,” Perry said of customer feedback. The last feature update, aside from Windows 2000 itself, was Option Pack 4, which came out with Service Pack 4 for Windows NT.

No new features is a complicated customer requirement, though. Some customers would like to see an annual release of the operating system, taking care of new features in new releases.

Microsoft needed four years to turn Windows NT 4.0 into Windows 2000. Whistler, the follow-on release to Windows 2000, is slated for mid-2001 at the earliest.

“Some customers tell us if we are on an annual release of the operating system, then there’s not really a need for a feature pack. Beyond [annual releases], maybe once a year on a feature pack,” Perry says.

For now, Microsoft walks a fine line between fixes and new features. The Windows 2000 SP1 CD will include the Terminal Services Advanced Client, but won’t install the component by default. SP1 does update several device drivers by default, adding functionality, although it doesn’t add new drivers. Feature or fix? – Scott Bekker

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