With Microsoft Corp. now saying that its next major service pack for Windows XP will not ship until 2008, some Windows users are wondering whether the software upgrade will ever be released.
"The fear is Service Pack 3 will just get killed off," said Jeff Centimano, an IT consultant with Levi, Ray & Shoup Inc., based in Kansas City, Missouri, who says that he's heard concerns from administrators since late last week, when Microsoft announced "preliminary" plans to ship SP 3 in the first half of 2008, later than previously expected.
That puts the update within months of the early 2009 cut-off date for mainstream support for the XP operating system, and users like Centimano are now concerned that Microsoft may not feel that a Service Pack 3 is worth the effort.
InfoWorld