14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 are in their respective final stages of development. Starting with December 2007, Microsoft moved both service packs into Release Candidate phase. As far as development milestones go, Release Candidate is among the last steps before a software product goes gold. And in this context, the Release Candidates for Vista SP1 and XP SP3 are indeed near-final versions of the service packs due this year. And although Microsoft has failed to reveal the release to manufacturing date of XP SP3 and Vista SP1, the service packs could be RTM in February along with Windows Server 2008.
The Redmond company, despite having set the official launch event - Heroes - happen Here - on February 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, for Windows Server 2008, has not indicated the RTM deadline for its last 32-bit server operating system. At the beginning of January 2008, Microsoft moved Windows Server 2008 out of Release Candidate stage and into the Escrow phase, according to Bink.nu. Now, the Redmond company has officially confirmed to InformationWeek that Windows Server 2008 will indeed be released to manufacturing in February 2008. Escrow is a development milestone reserved for the final testing of a software product before RTM.
Windows Server 2008 was initially planned for RTM by the end of 2007, but Microsoft postponed the finalization of the code to the first quarter of 2008. New reports indicate that the server operating system could go gold as early as the first weeks in February, but no later than the official launch at the end of the month. Bill Laing, general manager of Windows Server development, revealed that in a few weeks Windows Server 2008 would evolve into its final stage before RTM, a moment referred to as "break glass in case of emergency." Starting with that, RTM will be just a maximum of a couple of weeks away.
Why is this detail relevant to Vista SP1 and XP SP3? Well, because Microsoft has all but completely synchronized the development milestone releases of Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows Server 2008. In December 2007, for example, the Redmond company made available Release Candidates for both the service packs as well as for the server operating system. In this context, February might just be the month for the RTM of Vista SP1 and XP SP3.