SME Solutions - Business IT Computing Solutions Eastbourne

"Microsoft’s Windows Server division has veered from its regular schedule to eliminate — at least in name — the minor “R2″ update of Windows Server 2008 that was slated to arrive in the next year or two. The result: The next version of Windows Server that Microsoft will ship will be named “Windows 7 Server.”

Read the entire article here

The change of plans is not that surprising, but at the same time its good to see some clarity on the road map although most assumed Windows Server 2008 R2 would come in 2010 followed by 7 Server in 2011 or after. 2010 looks to be a big year of major product releases from Microsoft. In some ways it proves that Microsoft has improved in their development processes although Windows Server 2003 R2 focused on releasing Out of Band technologies together with the OS since some did not make it in the initial iteration of Windows Server 2003. Information about Windows 7 Server has been rather scarce compared to the client, then again, Windows Server 2008 was just brought to market in February of this year. Its good to see information is slowly but surely coming out about Microsoft's next moves with Windows. The latest build of Windows Server 7 available to the public right now is: 6608.winmain_win7m2.080511-1400, which an assumed Microsoft employee posted rejoicing the Windows Server Teams success promoting the first Windows Server 7 build as a Domain Controller. A Cached copy of that post can be found here. Windows Server 7 is expected to be a 64 bit release only, while the client is expected to continue with a 32 and 64 bit release.

Windows 7 Screenshots - is this how Windows Server 7 will look?