14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Server 2008 was released to manufacturing alongside Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on February 4, 2008. It took a team of over 5,000 people more than three years to put together the successor of Windows Server 2003. In excess of two million copies of the server operating system have shipped to partners and testers worldwide during the development process. Windows Server 2008 comes to the table with Internet Information Services (IIS) 7, Server Core, Terminal Services Gateway, Network Access Protection, PowerShell, Failover Clustering, Next Generation Net Stack, Server Manager, Read-Only Domain Controller and Hyper-V Beta - server virtualization.
"I'm excited to be part of the best Windows Server release that we have ever released. I'm filled with joy like a new father as we bring a new member into the family of Server products, and at the same time I am saddened. I am saddened by the feeling of loss, as people start moving on to new projects. It is now time to get the product into all of our customers' and partners' hands. I'm looking forward to our launch event on Feb. 27 in Los Angeles and I know that it will be great. Today, I raise my glass to everyone in the room with a smiling tear to my eye and say I could not be more proud to work with a group of seasoned professionals like everyone here today and in few years everyone here can look back with pride and say 'I was part of Windows Server 2008'," revealed Tom Hazel, Project Manager at Microsoft.
Immediately following the RTM, the Redmond company made Windows Server 2008 available via Connect, MSDN and TechNet. The official launch of the server operating system is scheduled for February 27, 2008, in Los Angeles at the Heroes Happen Here event. Benjamin Jones, Microsoft Consultant revealed that Connect was indeed offering the RTM version of Windows Server 2008, but without any product key. Concomitantly, users with MSDN subscriptions or with TechNet Plus subscriptions could also access the gold bits of the server operating system.
"We are pleased to announce the release of the Windows Server 2008 RTM WDK. The WDK build is now available for download on Connect. This WDK beta release to Connect coincides with the recent OS release of Windows Server 2008 RTM. Please take a few moments to install the newest WDK build and test as applicable for your needs. As always, please file bugs found as quickly and as detailed as possible. In this WDK release, the WDK is delivering the latest updates to build drivers for Server 2008 and earlier platforms since the release of Vista a year ago. This is the supported platform for the development and release of all production drivers for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008," reads a message posted on the Windows Driver Kit Home Page.
But at the same time, Windows Server 2008 was leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Booth the Windows Server 2008 x86 RTM and Windows Server 2008 x64 RTM are now available for download on torrent websites, via BitTorrent clients. The downloads come as ISO files that can be burned to disk and then installed.