I think it's kind of sad that "News for Nerds" won't run an article on a major update for an operating system run on over 90% of computers out there, despite endless submissions. Nonetheless, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 [microsoft.com] has been released, and includes new updates [microsoft.com], along with all the updates from SP1, SP2, Security Rollup, and Installer 2.0. There's also the ability to more easily choose which application will be the default for web browsing, email, and media playing, a la this [slashdot.org] Slashdot article. More importantly, however, is the change in the EULA. From BugTraq:

Be sure to read the new EULA/privacy statement for Windows update, it has an
interesting portion about how Windows Update and Automatic Update (which
gets installed with SP3) can, by agreeing to this license, send the
following pieces of info to Microsoft, this was posted on the MS focus list
by Javier Sanchez:

"With the latest version of Windows Update (essentially a mandatory download
and now part of SP3) you consent to sending the following information to
Microsoft:

* Operating-system version number and Product Identification number
* Internet Explorer version number
* Version numbers of other software
* Plug and Play ID numbers of hardware devices

This is stated in the "Windows Update Privacy Statement" which you can read
at You can also
follow the "About Windows Update" link off the WindowsUpdate page. Don't
bother trying to right-click, they've made sure to disable that."

Scary. A poll option is better than nothing, I suppose.