It must be a busy day on the Microsoft campus, with two important products going RTM (Release To Manufacturing).
Firstly the long awaited Vista Service Pack 1, which Microsoft no doubt hope will speed the uptake of their latest desktop operating system. However the proof of this will be very much in the proverbial pudding as the service pack looks unlikely to update a number of architectural decisions made by Microsoft which are still the subject of some discussion by the user community and believed by some to be an ongoing roadblock to Vista adoption.
Just in time for worldwide launch on 27th February of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 (although we don't think SQL Server 2008 CTP really counts as launching the product, it looks like Microsoft have pushed that back to Q4 2008). We'll be donning our reviewers hats for a run down of the highs and lows of Windows Server 2008 in the coming weeks.