Has anyone here been privy to any manner of the Windows Server 8 betas? A lot of the new features don't particularly interest me, but I wonder if changes in the Windows 8 kernel reported to improve memory efficiency is exclusively function of Metro smaller memory footprint then Explorer, and if any of this makes it to the Windows Sever 8 SKUs... As Windows Server 8 is also being developed for ARM server hardware, it looks like Server 8 will at the very least be an interesting bird.

The public beta release is today. I will post the link once I find it. If you ( or others) happen to find it before me, or if I don't have the time to do so, feel free to post the link.

Tested and working.

Not very enthusiast that the Start button got removed but....

We are starting to fix R2Conv3 packs for W8 Server.

We'll post when tests are completed.

The Horsemen

Any news?

Do you think when server 8 is released you would be able to do a direct upgrade from server 2008 r2 to server 8 ?

As for features that interest me, remotefx, tested it on server 2008 r2, seems good but the improved version by miles lives on server 8, don't like the metro stuff though :/

Keep up the good work guys

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh831617.aspx

Bottom of the page.

Microsoft on Friday, April 20th released the official name of upcoming server as "Windows Server 2012".

I've been trying it for a few days now, and it's a very confusing system to run. Honestly, more research should have gone into Windows Server 2012 before releasing it.

My pet peeves...

1. Metro UI is not optimal for a server environment. In fact for a server system it needs to be eradicated completely and restored to a classic UI. It serves no function as honestly, what server is going to include a touchscreen monitor system, and aren't servers usually ran without very much eye candy features, unless you set up one as a workstation. It's just too much overhead for the system.

2. System layout is completely anti-productive. When it took me about 10 minutes to find the Shutdown and Reboot tool, I completely lost interest. The Apps themselves are somewhat confusing to switch and exit from. While trying to open a text editor I accidentally shutdown IE10 and my messenger service.

3. The amount of system overhead seems a lot worse on 2012 than with 2008 R2, It seems even with minor tasks and rolls installed for practical purposes, a lot of system resources are being used, more so than previous engagements.

What I did like...

1. System boots faster than previous installments. Seems more on par with a Linux systemd boot than previous installments.

Sorry... that was it.