Anomalous Anomaly

I just installed service pack 1 on a 64-bit Windows Vista machine, and it stupidly took forever and a half to install. It also took multiple reboot cycles, something that wasn’t needed in previous Windows NT operating systems (2000 and XP included). I think Microsoft’s going the wrong direction with Windows service packs, because it is now ridiculously hard to integrate into a customized Windows disc. With Windows XP service packs, it was simple. You’d copy the files to the hard drive, slipstream, and burn the disc. The whole process took about 20 minutes. With Vista, it’s an interminable procedure requiring third party software (vLite). The process takes an hour or more.

Another service pack that I’ve had annoying troubles with is Visual Studio 2008 SP1. It takes more than an hour to install. In fact, it’s still installing on this machine. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s actually stuck, because the progress bar hasn’t moved in 20 minutes or so.

Why the hell do Visual Studio service packs take forever to install? I assume the problem with 2008 SP1 is similar to the 2005 SP1 issue, which required a very ugly hack to get around it. I mean, it works, but it just takes forever. With Visual Studio 6, you could install a service pack in less than 5 minutes. This process has ballooned to over an hour. Why?!

Another thing that’s bugging me is that Visual Studio 2008 feels slower than molasses. Apparently I’m not alone in noticing this.

Microsoft’s stuff is just seeming less and less appealing. I can get a decent development machine running Mac OS X set up in about an hour or maybe two (including Xcode, Git, development libraries [SDL, etc], CMake, Smultron, etc). On Windows, It’s taken me at least 8 hours so far. I’ve been installing Windows, Visual Studio, service packs and other updates constantly. And I mean constantly. I haven’t let the machine idle once.

Microsoft! Give up on all this stupidity you’ve been adding to Windows, Visual Studio, and Office for Mac! Slim your applications. Make performance and size a priority. To ignore performance will be an absolutely fatal mistake for you. The only teams I think really have it together right now are the Microsoft Office (Windows) team, and the Xbox team. Their stuff installs easily, updates easily, and runs smoothly. Why can’t the rest of Microsoft get this crap right?!