Update – Some information as to the “why” is posted.
ESRI has pulled down the ArcGIS Desktop/Server Service Pack downloads. If you have already downloaded these, you probably don’t want to install them until ESRI releases a new build.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to install service packs.
28 Comments
Yikes, our developers are shaking as we speak… Today we wanted to deliver a set of tools with the label “works with SP3″.
Installed SP3 and working no crashes yet (maybe they missed out the crash.dll?)
No problems yet on my install, but time will tell. I’m thinking this is relatively unprecedented for an ESRI service pack isn’t it? At least I can’t recall one they’ve pulled back in the past. Perhaps delayed, but never removed.
Hey James, how exciting – build 2132 of 7x:
http://www.manifold.net/updates/
I think one of the commenters on the original service pack 3 announcement post suggested that this very thing would happen.
Nope, no crashes yet from my new Manifold update!
Unbelievable. C’mon ESRI. After spending 2 hours downloading and installing SP3 for ArcGIS, ArcGIS help, and the .NET SDK- then recompiling my codebase, I get this news to start my Friday. Just glad we didn’t ship a SP3 toolbar that was about to go out the door. And the information provided in the ESRI forum link above sounds none-too-promising either. Sounds like more downloads, uninstalls, reinstalls….
COME ON PEOPLE. I just spent the day at a client site installing ArcGIS Server for development use. Like a good boy scout I installed the latest and greatest SP, and finished my task. I am sure my client will love to hear that they need to pay me to come back and install a revised version of the SP. Maybe I should send the bill to ESRI.
ESRI you are not building a good case of why I should be distracted from looking elsewhere for GIS server products.
Nice post! You have said it very well. Keep going.
a) I’ve not noticed any problems compiling/running code on my sp3 Server or Desktop.
b) ESRI did not pull the patch; the guy on the ESRI forum with the utah.gov address pulled their own links to the patches.
This isn’t to say there might not be problems with SP3, but let’s at least be accurate in reporting!
NoLove: How about you go back and install it free of charge since you made the mistake of installing a service pack on the same day it was released.
While it is ESRI’s fault for putting something out that wasn’t ready, you should know by now from ESRI (and even Microsoft) that installing patches and service packs on release day is risky. Someone is going to get hit financially here, you or your customer. If you hit your customer for the bill and lose their business it’s going to hit you even worse…
jburka: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=downloads.patchesServicePacks.viewPatch&PID=17&MetaID=1315 you’ll see this where the links use to be: Please check back, this download is not available right now.
anon:
Good point. I was matching their desktop environment which had already been set to SP3. Luckily it is a dev environment. I would never do the same in a production environment.
The idea that an update shouldn’t be installed yet is kind of strange.
Isn’t it?
Mike Sumner: It is, but unfortunately I’ve learned from both ESRI and Microsoft to wait a day and see how whether they are going to pull it or if anyone reports it affecting anything else. If I remember correctly, a good example was XP service pack 2 which enabled the personal firewall. This instantly made it so that ArcGIS couldn’t get floating licenses. This issue trickled into the ESRI forums that same day.
SO when will this stop? When will users say enough is enough and class action against ESRI for negligence?
That won’t happen, this a free market and surely it’s all covered in the license agreement. The users will just stop buying it.
anon: point taken, I was being slightly facetious and had missed the subtletly about only waiting 1 day (and sitting back to watch while all the chumps install it)
I honestly don’t understand how companies can legally defend their EULA’s (yeah yeah, I know, deep pockets and lawyers). According to the EULA’s, they could pretty much sell you a virus that destroys your computer and they’re in the clear.
There’s some pretty scarey stuff in the EULA’s… In one version of Claris Impact (i.e. back my crazy Mac days), I saw something that said (almost verbatum): “you accept that our software may be beta, pre-production, or pre-release or incomplete and may not function as advertised.” It really stood out in my mind as it was the first and last time I ever saw a company so truthfully tell me they hated their customers…
Of course, there’s alway’s today’s standard EULA on every product that says: XXX DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTIES REGARDING THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND PERFORMANCE OF YYY.
{sarcasm}Sometimes I think to myself, I’m glad I make an honest living unlike these criminals, big-tobacco, oil companies, and music labels… but then I remember, I develop software for a living. Doh!{/sarcasm}
It would be nice if ESRI would make a statement about this. Some of us download the service packs and make them available on a local server for all our users. I was fortunate enough to catch this headline this morning on your blog, James, but I bet there are some ESRI users that don’t read it everyday. Thank you for providing a service that ESRI is not right now, and that is informing the user that patches downloaded earlier this week are bad. I hope ESRI doesn’t think they can ignore this and it will just go away.
What are they really focusing on? Marketing, of course. In the SP3 headline hype E$RI says, “This service pack includes ArcGIS Survey Analyst 9.2 with Cadastral Editor.” It appears that what they really mean is that if you’ve chumped up your $2500, you get an improved version of this extension, …as well as others.
It seems the obfuscation, meaningless and misleading verbiage of the marketing machine increases each year. Code? I would have failed FORTRAN 101 (yes, many years ago) if I had made the mistakes I see them making. E$RI is a GIS marketing and cheerleading company that tries to write their own software. I don’t think they care anymore.
Phil, I agree completely. That the only “official” communication from ESRI is through Steve via the ESRI forums is pretty absurd.
I continue praying that someone with deep pockets and better business acumen buys them out. It’s painful to be so reliant on them for our software offerings.
microsoft has deep pockets, but I dunno about the better business accumen.
I don’t mind the Service Pack was pulled, things happen.
What I do mind is that I learn about it on this blog. I’ve already installed it and while I haven’t noticed any problem yet, a little blurb on the front of the support site would be nice. My business is built around their software and it would be nice to know that the service pack has issues and what the issues are.
Well, you should not update your entire code base and client base with a new SP the day it comes out. That is just silly talk. And yes, I can tell you that even new versions of manifold can break your old code – I have experienced it. A sane process for anyone using this stuff professionally is to test any service pack (ArcGIS, Manifold, Windows), in a non production environment, and wait a week or two after an SP comes out.
With software with millions of parts (lines of code), ways of using it, especially programatically, can be infinite. So in a test lab you simulate and generalize, and cannot possibly test all interactions. An analogy is – if your hard drive has as a Mean Time Between Failures of 30,000 hours, then generalized tests are designed to test that – but you cannot actually test directly before releasing the product because it would take over 3 years, by which time the technology inside the device would be irrelevant.
I think ESRI showed integrity by pulling it. They could have just posted the update tomorrow that installs over the top.
However, I have a problem that they do not offically talk about this on their web site. I got it the first day to check out in a test lab, but only found out from this blog there is some problem! So I don’t really know what the heck is going on.
yeah, well that’s nice in theory but bunk. Every little bug I ever submit (a few recently) and half the time ESRI says “have you installed the latest service pack (SP3)”
It is a classic grasping of straws. “We don’t know what is wrong, but we sure hope this new SP fixes it”
mdsumner grasps for kryptonic umbrella, and runs
Damian posted some information:
http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2007/08/03/information-about-the-arcgis-92-service-pack-3/
I tried to install sp3, it failed. Upon failure my system became very unstable and I’ve not been able to open other programs. I then contact ESRI support and they have me uninstall 9.2 all together and reinstall it. On the reinstall I get fatal errors and the install rolls back and my computer crashes.
Now I’m lucky if I can run outlook and iexplorer at the same time.
I think I’m going to try and install 9.1 and go from there.
Yay for computers!!!
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