Working for Microsoft makes you a little used to seeing people slate your products whether they know what they are talking about or are just trying to make press.  Someone associated with the press once told me that news rooms get a buzz when a negative Microsoft story comes in - oh joys!

So, for all this, while all the noise has been about Office 2007 and Windows Vista recently, Windows codename Longhorn Beta 2 has quietly popped out.  This is the server product, which will shop in 32-bit and 64-bit form, but only the x64 version will be used as the foundation for SBS Longhorn codename Cougar.

While I can't tell you anything about Cougar - after all, we have not got SBS 2003 R2 out the door yet - you can start to see what the foundations will be.

Longhorn Server, with more functionality, IPv6 based networking, huge security leaps and much more.  To see the product, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/longhorn.  Today, Longhorn is only available via TechNet or MSDN, but as I have mentioned before, buy Technet and get 2 included Product Support Services help desk calls, worth more than the price of Technet, so seems simple to me.

Anyway, have a look at the review at http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/06/26/79167_26FEmstechlonghorn_1.html?s=feature - interesting view on the 1st brush.  The Microsoft site has more on the features etc.

ttfn

David