First look at Windows Server 2008 RC1

Way back in early 2005, I wrote up a first preview of what would become Windows Server 2008. At this time, Windows Server 2003 R2 was still in beta, and Windows Vista, well, let's not go there. What's most interesting about Windows Server 2008, to me at least, is that even though this Server release has followed the lengthy trajectory of its ill-fated client counterpart, it has never been haunted by the same bad press. This is astonishing for a number of reasons.

First, if anything, Windows Server 2008 is even later to market than is Vista. Originally expected 6 to 9 months after Vista (or "in early 2007" as I cheerfully wrote in that first preview), Windows Server 2008 will now ship in February 2008, plus or minus a few weeks, or almost a year and a half after Vista. Credit the stunning ambivalence about this slip to the market which Windows Server 2008 serves: Businesses and enterprises are in no rush to upgrade anyway, and while the many improvements in this release are obvious and desirable, there are no "midnight madness" events for Server releases.