I laughed when I read your article! Did you NOT see that the listing for the NYTime Reader says "Compatible version is now available"?

Was it too much trouble to actually read bulletin or did choose to exagerate for the sake of a good headline?

And i laughed when i read your stupid comment, the fact is that SP1 does stop the NY Reader from working, something microsoft made a lot of noise about when it was release.

OK they have managed to provide an update but as Joe states if this happens to a WPF Vista application then you have to wonder what the future holds for breaking WPF apps

And I laughed when James got all defensive...good job James, too bad you're too biased towards this whole thing...

Well, I think it's silly to expect that a service pack WON'T break something. How in the world can Microsoft (or any other software vendor) possibly fix things in an OS without it potentially breaking something?

The point is that the service pack isn't even released yet, and there are already complaints about it. Every other vendor has had plenty of time to make THEIR products work with SP1. It's not Microsoft's responsibility to make up with someone else's deficiencies.

I bet those developers would have fixed the problems sooner if the RC's hadn't sent their computers into a perpetual reboot ;)

Didn't Microsoft write the NYT application?

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/apr06/04-28TimesReaderPR.mspx

So in this case it is actually their deficiency AND their responsibility...

Fred is right. If a compatible upgrade exists, then it crazy to ding MSFT or NYT over this.

ps... the list is ridiculously short. Wow.

Actually, it's not crazy or ridiculous to ding Microsoft for having Vista SP1 break a WPF application. It's the same story it's always been: Microsoft's ability to intercommunicate and interoperate across a web connection has always been fragile and sub-par.

For a company with the size and resources Microsoft has there is NO EXCUSE for anything to slip past testing. No excuse at all. And people who want to pass off an apoligist's justification are shills hoping to mitigate the impact such bad news brings.

Microsoft has made its own bad news. The real tragedy is there have been so few dependable writers willing to stand up and point out what Microsoft has been doing so wrong for the past five years.

Just think where Microsoft's reputation could be by now without current management, current legal and current engineering.

Oh well, maybe Microsoft will do better this year when they finally show the world what .Net and Silverlight 2.0 can REALLY do with WPF ... hopefully.

What are you talking about, Pedro Panza? It's almost the opposite. It takes a lot of guts for a writer to stand up for Microsoft and Vista now days simply because of all the bad rap that its gotten from mac fanboys and supposedly un-biased sources (that are really just in it to tear them apart). Honestly, I think you need to read a little more into it, and I think you'll see how few people like Microsoft and Vista right now.
I can stand up and say I like them because I have common sense, and I know that people look at other blogs and think they get free publicity by bashing them...
Whatever...

http://www.news.com/2100-1002_3-6231449.html

Without SP1 incompatibilities, Windows Vista is already facing an ingrained perception by enterprise users of incompatibility with old systems, said Joseph Sweeney, an analyst at Intelligent Business Research Services.
Issues of back compatibility require regression testing on old applications, making any deployment very painful to do in one install, he said. "In theory, you only have to fix it once, and you should be able to deploy it across your whole environment, but many organizations do not have a highly automated deployment."

The problems with SP1 will only make backward-compatibility issues worse, he said, especially since many companies have been waiting to deploy the operating system until the release of the service stack.

The positive thing about Vista, he said, has been that organizations are stepping back and looking at their deployment methods. Because the desktop market is maturing, the trend would have happened anyway, he said, but Vista's problems have acted as a catalyst.
------------
Thanks Vista!

To answer Joe's question, other WPF applications should be unaffected by the upgrade as this issue was fairly unique to a particular version of the Times Reader. We worked closely with NYT to make sure an update was available before SP1 came out so hopefully as few people would be impacted as possible.

Other similar applications (eg the PI Reader) are just fine and we're not aware of any other compatibility issues with WPF. Obviously we take application compatibility extremely seriously and if anyone finds any problems with WPF applications as a result of installing SP1 then they shouldn't hesitate to contact me (ian.ellison-taylor@microsoft.com).

Thanks,

Ian.

Little Hope?
--------

All of the systems showed a decline in benchmark scores after installing SP1.
http://blogs.zdnet.com
Conclusions

The results from this set of benchmark runs have turned out to be quite clear.

* In all the 64-bit tests (PCMark Vantage and CINEBENCH R10), Vista 64-bit RTM beat Vista 64-bit SP1.
* Vista 64-bit RTM also got the top spot on the PCMark Vantage 32-bit benchmark too, with Vista 32-bit RTM coming second, Vista 32-bit SP1 third and Vista 64-bit SP1 coming in forth.
* In most of the CINEBENCH R10 32-bit tests, Vista 32-bit RTM came in first and Vista 64-bit RTM came in second, Vista 32-bit SP1 came in third and Vista 64-bit SP1 came in third.
* All of the systems showed a decline in benchmark scores after installing SP1.

Speed demons might want to hold out on SP1 for a while - there may well be some new performance enhancing updates released later.

Next week I’ll look at gaming and see how performance is affected there, and in case your head is spinning from all the benchmarks, I’ll do a post that pulls all the data together.

Microsoft class action suit over Vista approved
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23322174/

I swear the quality of articles from MS watch keeps going down. It's really sad :(

Slimy, i agree the quality is low but make sure your assessment isn't based on the truly clueless commenters. Joe had a string of excellent INSIGHTFUL posts during January. It was the best month I've ever seen from him... including his time at CNET long ago.

"I notice that Windows Live OneCare isn't on the list of incompaible software."

I notice that neither Norton/Symantec nor McAfee security software is on the list of incompatible software.

As for the other software on the list, it's "a supported version is now available", "a supported version is now available", "a supported version is now available."

What a nonissue/nonstory...

Given that many, if not most, computer users are not technically sophisticated, MS could go a long way toward preventing unnecessary frustration by incorporating a check for incompatible software -- and provide links to updated versions -- into the pre-installation routine. Most people are not going to check online forums for potential glitches before installing SP1. It's much simpler to write a simple check routine than it is to assuage angry and frustrated customers.

Oh really Graig. It's easier to write a check for over a million different software programs to see if they are compatible, then the users to just try them or stay informed by reading websites relevant to their programs? Yes, and pigs fly too!

I think everyone's complaining about issues that may never affect them. Joe's made some OK points, I'm a fan of MS, I use 32 and 64 bit flavors, I've had plenty of issues to work around.
I don't think "computing nirvana" exists, and I don't think I'd want it. I can't imagine a computer without tweaks.
Vista's an operating system, it's also a story in the making (ask Joe here), enjoy it, grow with it, or leave it alone.
The alternative is turtle-necks, Ipods and twice the price for software that freeware on a PC.

I swear the quality of articles from MS watch keeps going down. It's really sad :(

My NYT Reader is working just fine after upgrading today. I'm laughing too Joe, just not with you.