Brian Osborne interprets:
This will be an important service pack for end users, but more importantly for enterprise customers. Enterprise customers will be able to take advantage of some of the security features of Vista without having to go through a massive deployment to introduce them. In the end, SP3 is just ensuring further longevity of Windows XP. Unknowingly, Microsoft may be giving customers yet another reason not to upgrade to Vista yet. more
Gordon Kelly agrees:
Unlike the teething problems in Vista's first Service Pack ... [XP SP3] is expected to be a straightforward upgrade which improves security and overall system performance. In fact, independent tests have shown productivity speed boosts by as much as 10 per cent - something Microsoft has actually tried to keep quiet so as not to harm sales of resource heavy Vista ... Expect there to be the odd XP3 induced grumbles from extreme legacy hardware and software users here and there - but the feedback I have had from XP3 RC2 testers is it has been pretty much plain sailing and systems do indeed feel snappier ... SP3 will become an automatic update for all XP users in a resistance-is-futile kinda way. Not that resistance should be mounted in this case ... Toying with upgrading to Vista? Here's another reason not to. more
But the very wonderful Larry Seltzer urges caution:
There's no official word from Microsoft ... [on] the schedule ... XP SP3 adds nothing substantial for security or features; it is mostly a vast rollup of previous updates. It would therefore be a good idea not to go install it as soon as it is available, at least not without a full system backup. Microsoft is facilitating this approach by not making the update automatic for almost 2 months after it becomes available. In fact, there are already reports of problems with systems after the installation of release candidates of SP3, such as Media Center systems to which the "banana hack" has been applied not being able to log on to domains. more
And Michael Pietroforte also chuckles:
Neowin doesn't say anything about its source. Usually, such information comes from employees who don't belong to the HRDC (Holy Release Date Circle). I didn't count the number of release dates that were published for Vistas SP1 this way. So I am not yet convinced that this information about XP SP3 is really correct. Sometimes it seems to me that Microsoft doesn't even have such an "internal schedule" for the release of anything ... my guess about Microsoft's way to plan release dates is more like this: Mr. Ballmer or someone else from the HRDC gets up after a peaceful night, looks out of the window, enjoys the morning sun, and while stretching he says to himself: "Today is a good day to release a service pack". more