Microsoft’s Windows XP Service Pack 3 release candidate is now available to anybody and everybody who wants to confirm reports that XP with SP3 is significantly faster than Windows Vista.
Recent tests by Devil Mountain Software show that Windows XP, coupled with Service Pack 3, runs certain desktop computing tasks roughly twice as quickly as Vista. Devil Mountain also discovered that SP3 offered a 10 percent performance boost over XP with SP2, while the firm said that performance gains with SP1 for Vista were negligible.
“Some people are commenting that SP3 makes XP faster than Vista, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment on a service pack candidate because service packs are about making the operating system more reliable,” said Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry. “I’m not sure how you even benchmark something that isn’t final code.”
SP3 Stealing Vista Glory?
The final version of Windows XP SP3 is still slated for delivery during the first half of 2008, but Microsoft seems bent on downplaying the attention Windows XP SP3 might get in favor of pushing Vista. The company posted a white paper to its Web site last week to remind users that Vista provides “the most advanced security and management capabilities” of any OS.
Windows XP debuted in October 2001. The last update, SP2, was released in August 2004. XP3 is slated to be the last major upgrade of the OS. Like most service packs, SP3 rolls up fixes that were previously released. Most of the fixes are already available to users who keep their system updated though Windows Update or who visit Microsoft’s Download Center to download fixes individually.
It’s nice to get the fixes delivered in one neat package, Cherry said, because you don’t have to download them separately and experience the hassle of the various installation programs. However, he…