Windows Server 2008 RC1 up for grabs

Stephen Withers
Friday, 07 December 2007 01:21

Business IT - Technology

Anyone that wants hand-on experience with Windows Server 2008 can download Release Candidate 1 from Microsoft's web site.

The beta can be obtained on a 30-day licence. An evaluation period extended to June 30, 2008 is offered to those prepared to register with Microsoft.

Despite the name, RC1 is the second release candidate to be made available to customers. According to Microsoft, more than 1.8 million customers have downloaded evaluation versions of Windows Server 2008, and more than 3000 IT professionals have already been certified on the new operating system.

Windows Server 2008 is expected to be released to manufacturing by the end of February. Microsoft has scheduled a major launch event for Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 on February 27, 2008. The company is spending more than $US150 million on "outreach and demand generation to IT Pros and developers," according to the Windows Server Division Weblog.

The current version is Windows Server 2003 - five years is a long time between major upgrades for a significant operating system.

In related news, the release candidate of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will be made available to the general public next week. Vista SP1 is expected sometime in the first quarter of 2008, and Microsoft has warned that it will be necessary to uninstall the release candidate before SP1 proper can be installed.