With the Release2 for Windows 2003, which is to come out for free as an upgrade for existing legal Windows 2003 installations Microsoft wants to give Windows 2003 - their latest Server OS - more features, bug fixes and be more competitive, too. Yesterday, Microsoft released RC1 to its testers, and provides the ability for the public to register and download this build for free.
The new features that come with R2:
- DFS - Distributed File System lets you build virtual drives that bundle multiple share points to give easier access.
- SRM - Storage Resource Manager is a quota management system which partly is based on SRM tools from Veritas.
- Print Management gives control over all print servers (2000 and 2003), their printers and their queues.
- Storage Management for SANs lets you use a single MMC console for managing multiple SAN devices.
- ADFS - Active Directory Federation Services lets you create and maintain identity information for outside users.
- Unix Interoperability - Windows can now pretend to be a *NIX System and can give you therefore a better UNIX interoperability made possible by three new components: IdMU, SUA and MSNFS.