Many of the Microsoft watchers and customers I know have been expecting Microsoft to ship the first service pack (SP) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 before the end of 2010. But according to a newly published Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document on the Microsoft TechNet site, Microsoft is planning to release SP1 in the first half of 2011. Let me say upfront that this statement doesn’t necessarily mean that Microsoft won’t deliver SP1 this year. The Windows team is still chanting the underpromise/overdeliver mantra. With recent Windows releases, the team has provided estimated delivery dates that were considerably later than what they expected they could achieve, in order to make sure there were no (public) missed ship dates. So despite the latest proclamation, it’s still hard to say for sure if SP1 will be a 2010 or a 2011 deliverable.