Service packs are defiantly a good thing, they are an indication that MS is trying to fix their bugey operating system. I must admit that in the past, one service pack contained a bug that was responsible for a new exploit, but the net result of using it was good, as it fixed other exploits.
Despite what some people say, Windows has improved a lot over the last decade, I would admit that these improvements have not been good enough.
Windows 3.1 was the first reasonably mature version, and it has only seen 2 major upgrades. Windows95 & Windows 2000, both of these have been a significant improvement on the previous.
I can give technical details as to why each major upgrade of Windows is significantly better to the previous, when all that some people can come up, are BS accounts of their personal experiences and similar here say.
MS does not release services packs and upgrades for no reason, they don't do it to fuck your computer up!
They do it for a good reason.
I know Linux has improved at faster rate than Windows but this doesn't mean that Windows has stood still.
[ August 08, 2004: Message edited by: Aloone ]