Microsoft updates Hyper-V, server products

There wasn't a ton of news out of day 2 of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, but the company did announce a few product milestones.

Its small and midsize business server products have both hit the near-final "release candidate" stage. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (formerly code-named Centro) and Small Business Server 2008 (nee Cougar) are scheduled to launch and be fully available on November 12.

Microsoft also said its recently completed Hyper-V virtualization hypervisor is now available via Windows Update, as expected. The product had been available since late last month, but only as a manual download.

The software maker said it distributed 1.5 million copies of the pre-release version, though if I'm not mistaken, every copy of Windows Server 2008 came with a pre-release version of Hyper-V.

And, as I noted on Tuesday, Microsoft also made available several new online tools for partners, including Digital Forum--a social-networking tool for partners to share tips, ideas, and war stories, as well as Microsoft PinPoint--an updated version of its online catalog of partner offerings.

[benjaminstraight]

Finally the Hyper V is an update.

[natsuissa]

Google should announce a Microsoft phone lol

Nath
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[Penguinisto]

Until/Unless HyperV comes with the same tools as VMWare's Virtual Infrastructure, they'll likely not get much headway. Good catch on the beta distribution channel (it's in the Win2k8 distribution pkg), BTW.