Visual Studio 2005 hotfixes made public for download

After reading this post a while ago regarding the availability Policy for some hotfixes (e.g., not all hotfixes are public for download, and you have to call Microsoft Support to obtain the one you need), I had an internal discussion with my team on this topic.
Basically those are some of the reasons (at least the one I know about) for this controversial choice:

• As stated in every KB article, those fixes have not gone through the same accurate testing as public fixes or Service Packs, so it's possible that with a particular configuration the fix a customer request is not the right approach for him
• We keep track of the hotfixes we send to customers, and if a bug or problem is later discovered in that particular fix, thanks for those records we know who has installed it and we are able to contact those customers to send them an updated version of the patch, or in any case inform them of the newly discovered problem and help them to avoid it
• More often than you can imagine, we receive clearly wrong hotfix requests: for instance, a particular exception in Framework 1.0 has been fixed and the KB article is still public, but a customer with Framework 1.1 (which is not affected by that bug) requests that fix anyway... In such a case we usually try to help the customer to diagnose the real problem anyway (we say in best effort, i.e. spending a reasonable amount of time and effort for a free call such those ones)
• Unfortunately, often the same customers who say "Hey, I'm an adult, I know what I'm doing, just give me that fix!" are the same who then complain Microsoft for not properly testing his software... we'd also like to avoid this unsatisfactory situations
• Etc (for sure I'm missing something important, I apologize...)

Maybe the problem is that we internally know the reasons behind the above, but if well prepared and technically skilled people have difficulties to understand it, maybe we are not that good at explaining it, despite what is written in our KB articles.

We'll after all the nice thing is that Microsoft took your feedback on this topic and made a decision!   (direct link to DevDiv Hotfix Public Availability Pilot Program)

Here is an except from an internal email I received on the subject:

I'm thrilled to say that today we've launched the Devdiv hotfix Public Availability Pilot Program.  This pilot program will allow you to download the most frequently requested Visual Studio 2005 hotfixes without having to contact Microsoft Developer Support.  For more information about this pilot and a list of hotfixes that are available for download please visit the pilot home page.

The current set of hotfixes that are available for download are the top 10 most requested ones for Visual Studio 2005, but we plan to expand the list dramatically in the next few weeks. 

If you have suggestions for the program you can submit them via the connect web site.  I also welcome comments on my blog.

So... don't miss this chance to shape this new service, and let us know what you think!

Cheers
Carlo