SP2 Bugs

[Andrew]

With all the time, money, and Beta testing Microsoft put
into SP2, how can so many people be having problems with
the service pack. It just surprises me that Microsoft
would release a product that still had so many kinks to
work out, especially with all the heat they have been
taking regarding unstable software. I have not installed
SP2 yet, and to be honest I am a little hesitant. Sp2
just doesnt sit right with me. I do not know anything
about writing software code, but in my opinion making
major changes in the middle of an existing program is
bound to have more problems then creating the entire
program from scratch. Anyway does anyone have any
opinions?


Andrew

 

[KIWI]

I've been running SP2 Beta release for over a month without any issues. The
actual release seems to be the same build as the one I installed. I have no
complaints at all.

KIWI

 

[devin]

you should read about longhorn then. it's being turned in
to ''super xp'' . cut this and that, so it will come out in
2006. no longer the revolution in computing.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1640211,00.asp

 

[Guest]

Windows XP contains a massive amount of code. Making a glitch free OS is one
challenge. Making a glitch free OS to work with every piece of garbage
software out there is another. Upgrading is a good thing. But an upgrade
should never introduce new problems. If it ain't broke don't break it.
Shame on MS for releasing anything but a perfect upgrade !!!!!

 

[Travis King]

SP2 runs fine with my software, but it's very annoying. Not anymore with
all the tweaks I've done, but they know how to make things more complicated.

 

[Don Taylor]

With all the time, money, and Beta testing Microsoft put
into SP2, how can so many people be having problems with
the service pack. It just surprises me that Microsoft
would release a product that still had so many kinks to
work out, especially with all the heat they have been
taking regarding unstable software. ....
Anyway does anyone have any opinions?

A couple of things:

Some people have written that the best and brightest programmers
rarely want to be put into what are considered second-class jobs,
fixing bugs. Instead the new employees with less experience and
less skill are the ones who are dumped into the bug fixing job.
Compound that with tens of millions of lines of code of variable
quality written and patched by a long series of different people.

Next, the whole "six sigma quality" management idea, where product
quality was intended to be so high in products that literally one
customer in a million would ever see any flaw in a product... that
went right down the crapper with the new management idea, "cram
all the features you can think of into the product and make sure
we have a new version to release every six months, features are
what matter, the damn thing just has to barely work well enough
that we can live with all the bugs and screw-ups, if a customer
complains we can charge them to tell them to buy a new version."

It is possible, I've worked on teams that have done it, to produce
a product where you and two dozen of your co-workers would use the
product full time for fifty years and there would still be a 90%
chance that not a one of you would have ever seen a single bug!
Imagine what it would be like if Windows were like that.

 

[luminos]

A couple of things:

Some people have written that the best and brightest programmers
rarely want to be put into what are considered second-class jobs,
fixing bugs. Instead the new employees with less experience and
less skill are the ones who are dumped into the bug fixing job.
Compound that with tens of millions of lines of code of variable
quality written and patched by a long series of different people.

Next, the whole "six sigma quality" management idea, where product
quality was intended to be so high in products that literally one
customer in a million would ever see any flaw in a product... that
went right down the crapper with the new management idea, "cram
all the features you can think of into the product and make sure
we have a new version to release every six months, features are
what matter, the damn thing just has to barely work well enough
that we can live with all the bugs and screw-ups, if a customer
complains we can charge them to tell them to buy a new version."

It is possible, I've worked on teams that have done it, to produce
a product where you and two dozen of your co-workers would use the
product full time for fifty years and there would still be a 90%
chance that not a one of you would have ever seen a single bug!
Imagine what it would be like if Windows were like that.

Thne 2 co-workers saw a bug.

 

[GG]

I'm regretting that I ordered the sp2 cd via the web.
I guess it will be a coaster.

 

[Don Burnette]

My experience from installing SP2 and suggestions fwiw,

1: Made sure I had all the latest drivers for my peripherals
2: Made sure I had all available updates for my software
3: Did a thorough disk cleanup
4: Did a thorough virus scan
5: Imaged my hard drive using Powerquest Drive Image
6: Installed SP2 - stand alone network install.
7: Did a complete defrag of my system partition

System is running great, in fact somewhat more robust than before.
I have had 1 issue to date, my flight sim IL2 Forgotten Battles w/ Ace
Expansion Pack - cannot get it to run. I'll keep trying things and reading
forums and hopefully eventually find a fix or workaround, in fact, I find it
somewhat of a challenge.

Any operating system upgrade, always take care to prepare - be as well
prepared as possible, and definitely image or back up hard drive. I image
my drive on a weekly basis anyway just in case something does happen - it
usually is not if, but when. Hard drives do fail, bad clusters develop, but
certainly not because of an OS upgrade. I value my data, so I make sure i
keep an image of everything available.

There's a risk in everything. I have had hard drives fail for no apparent
reason at all. I have had expansion cards blow because of a lightning strike
creating a power surge nearby. I had a motheboard go bad once, I had taken
it out to put in a new processor, and somehow I must have fried it - I think
I bent one of the capacitors enough to screw it up.

But, I am not going to put my head in the sand and never upgrade my
software, install new software, never upgrade my computer, because of a
slight risk. In particular, if something does go wrong, I am bound and
determined to find out why, one way or the other, rather than giving up and
not doing it.

There will never be a "perfect" upgrade.



Don Burnette

 

[Andrew]

Well its looks as if I made the right decision by not
installing SP2. The update doesnt offer me enough to take
the risk of disableing my system. Once again I dont
understand how many "High-end" software companies produce
software with very few known problems and MS, the leader
in the industry cant do the same.

Andrew

 

[Alias]

Well its looks as if I made the right decision by not
installing SP2. The update doesnt offer me enough to take
the risk of disableing my system. Once again I dont
understand how many "High-end" software companies produce
software with very few known problems and MS, the leader
in the industry cant do the same.

Andrew

Because the other software makers only have to make software that will work
with Windows whereas MS has to make software that will work with thousands
of programs. MS has a harder, albeit better paying, job.

Alias

P.S. I'm goint to wait months before installing it, btw ;-)

 

[Plato]

With all the time, money, and Beta testing Microsoft put
into SP2, how can so many people be having problems with
the service pack. It just surprises me that Microsoft

Not many people at all really. This NG is pretty much doing its basic
traffic.