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Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Lots of people have been asking when Visual Studio 2005 SP1 beta will be released. No dates are released yet, but you can now sign up for the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta to be released on Microsoft Connect.

Published Friday, September 15, 2006 6:05 PM by Heath Stewart
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Comments

Friday, September 15, 2006 9:57 PM by Richard

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

If no dates are available yet, why does the servicing page still claim that SP1 will be released within the next two weeks?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/servicing/sp1_vs05/default.aspx
"This service pack is currently targeted for final release in Q3 of 2006."
Saturday, September 16, 2006 1:31 AM by RightHand blogs

# Sign up for Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta

Great news, something is happening in VS 2005 service pack area! Sign up for VS 2005 service pack 1 Beta
Saturday, September 16, 2006 7:25 AM by Tecnologie .NET (Dotnet)

# Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Service Pack 1 Beta

Saturday, September 16, 2006 8:52 AM by S

# Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Sunday, September 17, 2006 4:37 PM by Sam

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

How timely.  Lets release VS05 and then fix some of the bugs a year later.  Of course we wont tell you what bugs.  Just put your projects on hold for a while, your projects aren't very important.
Monday, September 18, 2006 6:47 AM by Brian

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

I completely agree with Richard statement about "If no dates are available yet, why does the servicing page still claim that SP1 will be released within the next two weeks?"

Its been quite clear this target was unrealistic for months (When you consider how long it took from the start of 2003 SP1 beta to release date), and the lack of information is very irritating.

Talking about the lack of information, why doesnt the serving page tell you what bugs fixs are currently intended. It says things like " Fixes for product reliability and stability issues". Which ones as their are many issues.
Monday, September 18, 2006 6:56 PM by Phil

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Well let's get real here. It doesn't say released in the next two weeks - it says "targeted"! It'll be later if things go wrong, and that should be obvious to anyone who's ever been involved with shipping a set of fixes to thousands of customers. When you take your car in for a fix do you want it at the end of the day or do you want it when it's fixed properly?
"We won't tell you what the bugs are so put your projects on hold". That's a great development strategy: there are bugs in my dev tool, so I'll wait until they're fixed whether I'm experiencing them or not. Why not wait until a possible SP2 in case SP1 doesn't fix all the bugs?
And how can they tell you what bugs are fixed while it's still in beta? If there was a list of fixes some might need to be deleted if they destabilize the SP and delay it beyond what's acceptable. I think the VS team is doing its best to keep developers in the loop, but uncertainties are inevitable.
Finally, I don't work for Microsoft but I do live in the real world.
Thursday, September 21, 2006 1:24 AM by Matt

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

"If there was a list of fixes some might need to be deleted if they destabilize the SP and delay it beyond what's acceptable."

So what!?  You're saying Microsoft couldn't bear the shame of pulling some functionality?  HA HA.

Such things are for the tech gossip columns to worry about.  We developers do not care about whether Microsoft saves face.  In this case, Microsoft saves face at the expense of its developer community.  Think about that for a moment.

Not having info about what's in this service pack costs me time and money.  The transparency of the whole service pack development has been less than ideal: first it was an internal dev team re-tooling, then it was a quality release, then there was a rumor about including the "Orcas VS Extensions".  

There's no way to know, because the public bug list cannot even be searched for a list of fixes going into SP1.  You can search for bugs marked "resolved" but most of these were closed because they were not reproducible!  I think it's clear that http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ is about eight years behind the times.  Did a summer intern write that app?

So anyhow, I signed up for the SP1 beta only because I'm hoping to read some damn release notes.

Since I mentioned Orcas, I have to ask: how are we supposed to develop Vista apps in the 6-9 months between Vista RTM and Visual Studio "Orcas" RTM?  Will the current "VS extensions CTP" be a supported product?  It's supposedly 70 days until Vista RTM... sigh
Friday, September 22, 2006 7:03 PM by Heath Stewart's Blog

# Enabling Large Patches to Install

As we prepare to ship a large minor upgrade known as Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1, I'd like to again...
Friday, September 22, 2006 8:44 PM by Richard

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Phil,

I'm not asking for SP1 to be released before it's ready. My concern is that the official SP1 information page is still claiming that SP1 will be - or "is targeted to be" - released within the next week, whereas the unofficial information buried in these blogs clearly indicates that this dealine is unrealistic.

To continue your analogy, if I take my car in to be fixed, I expect to get it back when it's fixed, but I also expect to be given up-to-date information on when that is likely to be. If the mechanic tells me it will be fixed by the end of the day, and then finds a more serious problem, I expect to be told straight away. I don't expect to have to call the garage 20 minutes before they close to find out it's going to take another week!

It will be interesting to see whether the official page gets updated before the end of next week, or if it's still claiming Q3 2006 this time next year.
Sunday, September 24, 2006 1:11 PM by Brian

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Hi Phil,
We all know this was a targeted date which may slip, after all software is complex and often takes longer to complete than expected.

All I am saying is it must have been obvious to Microsoft the service pack is going to be released much later than expected and as such a revised target release date should have been published a long time ago.

Also Microsoft must have a fair idea of which problems will be fixed in the service pack (especially if their at the point of singing up to the Beta) so a list of planned fix's would be useful to help me identify when the service pack is released is it likely to address many of the serious bugs I encounter almost dally.
Sunday, September 24, 2006 2:37 PM by George

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Its pretty frustrating not to have the slightest shred of information about this SP other than the clearly inaccurate Q3 estimate.  VS 2005 is far more like a late Beta or RC release instead of a final release.  That makes waiting on this SP even more irritating.  We should be kept better informed about this. Don't even get me started on the "you must call us for this hotfix" BS.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 10:27 AM by Teoman Soygul

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Well with the sp1 beta at least 1/2 of the all bugs are gone but the remaing half is still there (performance issues etc.). In my opinion, switching from VS2003 to VS2005 sp1 wont have that much of a logic since even with this service release, the productivity of the tool is way below its precedessors. In addition, out of all the bugs my personal favourite is still there: "Mother of all Visual Studio 2005 RTM bugs" calls it Miha Markic :))

http://cs.rthand.com/blogs/blog_with_righthand/archive/2005/11/10/186.aspx

Summary: Don't use VS2005 as you already weren't as a logical person untill they improve the SP1 to cover up all the remaining bugs which renders the application useless...
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 2:28 AM by Teoman Soygul

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

P.S. Installation of SP1Beta takes about an hour at dual opteran 32GB developer rig of mine!!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 2:45 AM by Heath Stewart

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Teoman, Visual Studio is a very large product with a very large list of files. It's actually several Windows Installer packages, and with the number of files the SP replaces it will take quite a long time to install. Patching against a Windows Installer product is just the act of transforming the view of the product and repairing it. Read http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2005/09/12/464047.aspx for more information about patching against Windows Installer.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 4:03 PM by Bz

# re: Sign Up for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta

Performance issues are the most disturbing.

I'm not renewing my msdn subscription - no point of dumping more money into this failed enterprise - how can they release Orcas if it takes them a year to release some bug fixes?

Maybe when Orcas comes out and performance improves I'll get the Pro edition.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 9:08 PM by Heath Stewart's Blog

# Enabling Large Patches to Install

As we prepare to ship a large minor upgrade known as Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 , I'd like to
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