With the release to manufacturing yesterday (RTF) [update: now delayed again! No word on the release date.] of Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Windows XP comes this good review of just what the fuss is all about. Of course, most of my 11 irregular readers have already downloaded the various release candidates and already know. But for those drive-by visitors who haven't, take a look. Note that the site has a sidebar that says you can start downloading the gold code today but as of this writing I have found no evidence to support this statement [update: the RTM has been delayed again due to problems identified at the last minute. When the problems are solved, you will be able to download it from the site below].
For those of you who develop or maintain web sites that use ActiveX components you may want to take a look at this Microsoft article on how to modify the site to work with the changes in SP2. You could also check out a site MS created that includes Resources for IT Professionals as it relates to SP2 [This is the site mentioned in the review above that says you can download the gold code today. This site used to have links to the various release candidates but as of this writing, does not have a link to the gold code. However, from what I understand, when the problems mentioned above are resolved, the site will have a link to the code].
By the way, there is also a SP1 for Office 2003 (Office update site here). It includes the regular bug fixes and security patches but also what is being described as substantial changes to Infopath and OneNote. I don't have either installed so I can't say but if you do, you may want to check it out.
Aloha!
