Microsoft has silently changed the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to 2007, a date that most consumers weren't expecting. In fact, most had looked forward to getting the service pack this year since Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer, said last year in April that this service pack will ship out before Vista.

This would mean that while Microsoft has been hard at work on the next big OS, they've essentially made XP users wait three years for a service pack (if it will indeed get released in 2007). Server 2003 SP2 is still to be released in either the third or fourth quarters of this year, so server admins are in luck, but it doesn't explain the lack of zeal showed by Microsoft in releasing a much anticipated service pack for a widely used OS a year later than expected.

Microsoft's general update releases have also come into question recently with the WMF flaw that set the whole tech industry into uproar. If monthly patching cycles don't work and people get upset with delayed release of service packs, shouldn't it be time Microsoft reevaluate their current update releases?

The last question still looms in the air; when will Vista come out? Since SP3 for XP won't come out till next year and Steve Ballmer himself said that the service pack will be out before Vista, then what should we expect? Some suggest that there might be a "Rollout Package" that Microsoft could release that will replace the SP3 all together. Who really knows anymore?