Stefano Demiliani WeBlog

What is the Microsoft politic for XP SP2 distribution?

Today I went to buy my monthly copy of "PC Professionale", the biggest Italian computer magazine and, checking the cd on the journal, I was surprised... why the new Windows XP Service Pack 2 is not included?

I opened the first page of the magazine and here I found the response... the director Giorgio Panzeri explains the lack of the SP2. In summary:

• Microsoft has decided that every copies of XP SP2 to distribute can't be personalized by the various publishers, but must be officially marked by Microsoft (with an official Microsoft CD). Microsoft, why these absurd costs for you?
• Microsoft has decided that if a publisher wants to distribute the XP SP2, must send a request to Redmond. Microsoft send 50.000 copies of XP SP2 for free, and the other copies are totally on charge to the publisher. Why this? With this action the little publishers (less than 50.000 copies) can distribute the XP SP2 for free and the biggest publishers (more than 50.000 copies) have high costs. Absurd...

But the strange things are not finished... in Germany there are publishers with more than 500.000 copies a month that have the license to distribute the XP SP2 totally for free!!! Why in Italy this is not possible??? Maybe that we're on a down level?

I'd like to have a response from the Redmond marketing department about these strange facts, but I know that this will never be reality...