SharePoint 2010 SP1 and patching guidance

There's a lot of interest in getting SharePoint 2010 SP1 installed and also making sure you're doing it the right way. I found some great information in this blog post so I thought I should share:

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/opal/archive/2011/06/30/the-mystery-behind-sharepoint-2010-patching.aspx