Yesterday, Mary Jo Foley, a writer whose job is covering the workings of Microsoft, announced that the beta of XP Service Pack 3 is out in the hands of beta testers.

Stephen Bink, of Bink.nu fame, posted a screen shot of the beta build he has received.

A Microsoft release has proclaimed:

“A pre-beta build of Windows XP SP3 was released to a select group of testers,” said a Microsoft spokeswoman, via e-mail. “We’re currently planning to deliver SP3 for Windows XP in the first half of CY2008. This date is preliminary, and we don’t have any more details to share at this time.”

According to a leak to Foley, there are 991 security and hot fixes in the release (remember that these are cumulative, so SP1 and SP2 fixes are included in this).

With the Service Pack still coming, many users (including me) will probably not be buying Vista any time soon, and my copy, given by attending a Microsoft Roadshow event remains in its paper sleeve - perhaps to be opened in 2009, or 2010. No rush, as it has been confirmed elsewhere that XP service packs, and support, will continue through 2014.

Maybe by then I’ll be running a set of Power 6 chips,  and using 64 GB of RAM, on a motherboard with the power of today’s Cray computers - and for kicks I’ll agree to try that quaint little operating system, Windows Vista.

[tags] ZDNet, Microsoft, Service Pack 3, Windows XP, Microsoft Roadshow [/tags]