Bink.nu is reporting that Beta 1 of Vista SP1 will be released sometime next week. This info comes from unnamed Microsoft sources. The general sense, from all the talk regarding Google’s complaint about how Vista handled its search engine choices, was that the beta would not be released until year end, pushing back the final until 2008. If the beta is released the week of July 16, Bink.nu says that the production version will be out in November, 2007.
Maybe the antitrust pressure Google has exerted is causing Microsoft to get its act together faster. Antitrust oversight of Microsoft is scheduled to end at the end of 2007. It would be a wise move for Microsoft to show beyond any shadow of a doubt that it won’t be using its operating system dominance to further muck with Internet-related markets – browser, search or others.
