Vista Service Pack 1 beta slated for next week?

Speculation has been running rampant for a few months now regarding the prospect of a service pack for Windows Vista, with some even predicting Microsoft would eschew the service pack model altogether, in favor of a series of iterative fixes delivered via Automatic Update. The best info we had to go on was a rumor Microsoft would indeed deliver the first service pack by the end of the year--which, in Microsoft terms, usually means "at the end of the year". If ZDnet Microsoft watchdog Mary Jo Foley is right, however, we could be seeing a beta of SP1 much sooner. Citing the usual "various sources who asked not to be named," Foley claims that SP1 beta will land "some time the week of July 16" and that the final release is "sounding like November 2007." That certainly fits into the timeframe we've been hearing for a while now, though a beta release next week is likely to surprise more than a few folks. Foley goes on to say the first pack will focus "more on fixes and less on new features," but that doesn't come as too much of a surprise. "It's official: We are now in the under-promise and over-deliver era at Microsoft," Foley says. I'll believe it when I see it.

For more on Vista SP1 beta:
- see this ZDnet blog entry

Related article:
Microsoft security expert on patching XP and Vista. Report