SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 CTP

I’m placing this in the “Best of MSDN Blogs”, but could it have easily been slotted in the “Worst of…” category as well?  We have now have a CTP for a service pack in SQL Server 2008 R2 sp1 CTP; doesn’t that seem sort of strange to you?  I don’t know, maybe it does to me a bit.  First off, a CTP should be, by definition, a preview of a new offering, one that will most likely be changed and improved upon. Sort of a “sneak-peek”.  On the other hand, a Service Pack should darn well be some locked down code in my book, especially when it is an accumulation of recent hotfixes. Have these hotfixes not been tested enough (as individual hotfixes), and shouldn’t they be before they are included in a service pack?  Seems to me that by offering a CTP for them, Microsoft is telling us that “hey, here are all of your rolled up fixes, but, um, we don’t know if they fully work, so we’ll go ahead and give ‘em to ya in a service pack CTP”.

I don’t know. Maybe not.  I well know that I’m not going to load up a vm with something like this; if there was some way significant fix or new feature…I guess…but I don’t really see one.

Ok, so here’s the link for the release and write-up.  Have at it – have fun!

Lee Everest

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http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd200f8e-ba8a-45e3-af59-e28a9e2d17df&displaylang=en

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2011/04/21/sql-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-customer-technology-preview-available.aspx