Posted on Wednesday, February 13 2008 @ 0:30 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
If that sounds like a lot of bugs to be stomped in one service pack, well, 551 is a pretty big number. But it’s not out of line with the number of fixes that went into the two service packs for Windows XP. The first XP service pack was delivered in September 2002, about 14 months after the original RTM date; its list of fixes included updates from 24 security bulletins and 297 hotfixes. XP Service Pack 2 covered a longer period of time (23 months), but still, its list of fixes was staggering, with updates identified by 60 security bulletins and a whopping 666 (no, I did not make that number up) fixes. (If you want to do a fair comparison between the first service packs for Vista and XP, you need to exclude a few fixes from the Vista list. Back in 2002, XP Media Center didn’t yet exist, nor did Tablet PCs, Windows Sidebar gadgets, or the .NET Framework, just to name a few categories that collectively include more than 60 fixes in Vista SP1 but weren’t needed in XP SP1.)
Fixes Category
75 Internet Explorer
41 Sleep/Hibernation & Power Management
38 Storage
35 Hardware and Drivers
35 Networking
28 Desktop and Shell
25 Printing & Scanning Technologies
25 .NET Framework, Data Components, Development Tools
24 Setup, Deployment, Backup, and Activation
24 Windows Media Center
23 International/Localization
20 Computer Management, Administration, and Tools
19 Application Compatibility
19 Multimedia
16 Performance and Reliability
16 Startup/Shutdown
13 Time Zone/Daylight Saving Time
13 Windows Media Player and Related Technologies
12 Security
12 Remote Access, VPN
8 IIS and WebDAV issues
7 Wireless Networking
7 Offline Files
6 Windows Mail and Web-based Software
5 Windows Sidebar and SideShow
5 Windows Portable Devices
