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So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?

When VS.NET 2003 was announced, Microsoft made it clear that it wasn't a service pack for VS.NET 2002 you had to pay for, it was a new release and that they'd release a service pack for VS.NET 2002 'shortly' after the release of VS.NET 2003. Well... it's been 3 months now today, since VS.NET 2003 is on the market and no sign of any service pack for VS.NET 2002.

This got me thinking. First I thought: what if VS.NET 2003 is the service pack for VS.NET 2002? Then, VS.NET 2004 is the service pack for VS.NET 2003. This way, Microsoft can make money out of fixes. However, I don't think they make a lot of money on the upgrade kits they sell for 29$ a pop. No, the reason why the service pack isn't there must be something else. What I've concluded now is that Microsoft is not releasing a service pack for VS.NET 2002 at all. This will force people to migrate to VS.NET 2003 and thus .NET 1.1, because of the unpatched bugs in VS.NET 2002.

If that's true, I truly fear we'll not see any service pack for VS.NET 2003 either, because I think Microsoft will of course want to migrate the .NET developers to VS.NET 2004 and .NET 1.2 a.s.a.p. after the release of Whidbey. I hope I'm wrong and Microsoft proves me wrong by releasing the fixes for VS.NET 2002 and will commit themselves to us, customers, that they'll release fixes for the bugs in VS.NET 2003.

Of course, some people might wonder why on earth would anyone still want a service pack for VS.NET 2002. To those people I'd like to say: start talking to some VB.NET developers using VS.NET 2003 and use VS.NET 2003 yourself for 8-12 hours a day non-stop. If you ask me, I'd go back to VS.NET 2002 any day, but I can't, simply because bugs that are fixed in .NET 1.1 (and were already fixed last year!) like the bugs in the binary deserializer stop me from using .NET 1.0 in my current GUI application.

Published Thursday, July 24, 2003 9:40 AM by FransBouma

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Comments

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:53 PM

What more do you REALLY need to see that MS is committed to their customers? Geez man. You sure do complain about MS a lot. Ever hear the phrase "biting the hand that feeds you?"

You could get a lot more done with MS if you had a more positive attitude. They're still figuring some of this stuff out, just like we are.

Robert McLaws

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:58 PM

What's wrong with critizism? I'm not biting the hand that feeds me. If I can't ask Microsoft why there isn't an SP for VS.NET 2002 released, the world really is in trouble.

Frans Bouma

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Thursday, July 24, 2003 2:33 AM

Hey Robert, since when is being critic bad???
Do you eat everything your holy "hand that feeds you" decides to give you?

Fabrice

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Thursday, July 24, 2003 2:44 AM

Frans,

Can you go into a little more detail about what you don't like about VS 2003? We are about to make the switch...

Thanks
Don

Don McNamara

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Thursday, July 24, 2003 3:25 AM

Don: if you're developing in VB.NET, I'd recommend you read Greg Robinson's blog and his blogs about vs.net 2003 and VB.NET.

In C# (which I use) I have problems with intellisense and the debugger. The debugger is sometimes failing to show membervariables but shows empty rows. Debugging is then useless. This happens to me 2 a 3 times a week. I have to restart the machine and even then it is kind of random.

I discovered that I don't use the features that come with vs.net 2003 that often. The intellisense 'prefered entry' feature isn't always useful and the stubbers of interface code is useless, simply because it doesn't copy the comments you specify with the interface declaration.

Frans Bouma

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Thursday, July 24, 2003 3:33 AM

Microsoft's support for current customers of the .NET Framework 1.0 and VS.NET 2002 is a complete load of *crap*!

First off, they don't even acknowledge a fraction of the bugs that are in the products. The only thing coming out of Redmond, as always, is upgrade! upgrade! upgrade! That will fix all your woes. Yeah, right. Give me a break M$.

Let me tell you something Microsoft. I'm a consultant who works for major companies who adopt .NET technologies. It's *amazing* in a lot of these shops that they adopted .NET in the first place. Those who have, for the most part, have adopted version 1.0 (and if I'm lucky, SP2 for the framework).

Most don't have any interest at all upgrading to the next version of VS.NET simply because they want to take the "wait and see" approach. You know, M$, the same one they want to take with your operating systems (and that's why Win2k and NT4 is so widely used, despite the all the new features of XP and Win2k3).

If we could get a fricking service pack with *real* fixes in it (what the hell was SP1 for the framework about, anyway? what a waste), then at least I could work hard to convince the management types to keep up-to-date with the latest fixes (usually because they do it out of habit to fix all the bugs in your other products).

If this is the way M$ intends to be, than I for one (and I know a lot of other developers feel this way), think it's a load of crap. C'mon M$ -- support your existing products and don't force people to upgrade to get the latest bug fixes.

M$, you've come a long way from what you used to be, but I'm afraid you're taking a step back with the (lack of) support you are giving your customers.

Load of crap

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Sunday, July 27, 2003 10:56 AM

Robert,

Ever heard of the prase:
'Customer is king' ?

We don't get fed by Microsoft. MS is just one of the firms that deliver IDE's for .NET (Borland is another one).
If you want to use a good product, then critizism is a way to get things done.

If you buy a new car, wich has some production faults, but in a new edition, or a new version of that type of car, these glitches are fixed, what do you expect? You expect that they will fix your car. You don't expect that the manufacturer says: "Oh, we fixed that in our new version, if you want it fixed, buy the new version of that model".

whoami

# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Monday, August 04, 2003 1:14 PM

yeah, im looking for a patch to vs2002 right now, but i guess there isnt one.

I like using MS's tools, but their customer service blows. im really sick and tired of it too. VS.net is full of bugs, but they dont seem to care. it really pisses me off.

how are we supposed to get work done on time when we spend all our time trying to work around the half-assed, piece-of-crap utility known as VS.NET?

shane

# I don't understand the longhorn-hype@ Monday, September 29, 2003 5:29 AM

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# re: So Microsoft, when is VS.NET 2002's service pack released?@ Friday, March 05, 2004 3:32 AM

There's really no sense upgrading from their series of products. I'm very very very much disappointed by their service fucks.

KISSMARX