2008 09 24 net 3 5 sp1 service release coming

Published on September 24th, 2008 at 8:50

.NET 3.5 SP1 service release coming!

It seems that sometimes whining helps. After complaining long enough about how the bugs in SP1 affect us and our customers, Microsoft decided to fix the two bugs that bother us. Better yet, those hotfixes (and some others I would guess) will be rolled up in a servicing release for SP1, which will be distributed via Windows Update as soon as SP1 itself gets fixed.

The following has been posted by MS for both bugs yesterday:

We're also in the process of testing a hotfix for this issue. I expect it will be available within a week or so. I'll keep you posted on the status and give you the KB (knowledge base) article number and how you, and other customers, can acquire the hotfix once it's available.
Additionally we intend to include this fix in an upcoming servicing release, a roll-up of sorts, which will be released in synch with 3.5SP1 via Windows Update. I.e. when 3.5SP1 starts getting pushed out broadly, so will this fix. We’re still working out the exact timeframe for this release but our hope is before the end of the year.

Thanks to Ayende Rahien, who helped me make that case with some numbers off affected projects and users, and Charlie Calvert of Microsoft who carried our feedback to their management, who eventually decided to do the right thing. It's good to know that when stuff like that happens, these guys are willing to do what it takes so this won't hit us too hard.

For other people who have to deal with SP1 regression problems in similar situations, I would think that now might be a good time to try and get them to include your favorite bug in this roll-up. Providing some background about your particular situation seems to help.

Update: Just found out that Scott Hanselman already blogged about this with much more detail.

- Stefan