Continuing their apparent efforts to take the steam out of Windows Vista, Microsoft today announced that the long awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is being released, but not to Vista users. That’s right, SP1 is now RTM (Released to Manufacturing), but won’t be released via any means to end users or even system administrators for at least another month and a half.

If it’s ready, why can’t we have it? Well, apparently there are some bad Vista drivers installed on some machines, and installing SP1 on top of them will cause a split in the time/space continuum. In all seriousness, it’s good that Microsoft wants the SP1 rollout to be as smooth as possible, but delaying an uncountable number of Vista deployments for another month and a half is a pretty serious matter as well. Long Zheng has a good question when he asks “…why advanced users can’t download it from Microsoft.com Downloads today.”

As stated in the Microsoft release, “If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1. Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.” They already know the drivers in question, and they seem fine with a user choosing to install the update even if they are using the drivers in question. If this is the case, make SP1 available on the download site now with a list of the affected drivers on the download page. This simple method will get system administrators working on the Vista deployments they’ve been delaying, yet won’t even be known about by the average home consumer that might not be able to handle the driver issue. It’s really no different than what will happen in mid-March. Plus, PC manufacturers like Dell can probably make it available in far less time than mid-March, but are likely being told not to release it until that time.

It shouldn’t be surprising for an operating system that was delayed as long as it was to have it’s first Service Pack delayed as well. It is disappointing though how a fairly decent OS like Vista is being dragged through the mud due to Microsoft’s botched timing and PR. Will Vista be remembered in the same way Windows ME is, as the punchline to a joke, or will it eventually break out of the perceived negative image?