Yes, its that time again where we take a look at that guy that likes to say I, Paul Thurrott and his juicy bits of news on the latest technology happenings from Microsoft. Here are 2 I've selected from this weeks 10.
Windows Vista Build 5219 Ready for the PDC
The Windows Vista code tree was recently forked between the version Microsoft will give out at the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) 2005 conference and the version that will become Beta 2. The current PDC build--build 5219--could very likely make it into the greedy little hands of attendees, and it's got a couple of interesting surprises: It includes the infamous and once-missing Sidebar and has the Tablet PC and Media Center functionality enabled. And fear not, people. You've been waiting to hear which product editions Microsoft will ship in the Vista time frame, right? That announcement is coming next week. Stay tuned.
Microsoft Offers Windows Server 2003 R2 RC0 for Public Download
It's not getting a lot of press, but Microsoft is quickly finishing up work on Windows Server 2003 R2 (for release 2), its first major upgrade to Windows Server 2003. In anticipation of the final release, Microsoft recently shipped the first release candidate (RC0) version of R2 to testers, and now they've made it available to the public as well, in a 180-day time limited version. To use this version of R2, you'll need a functioning copy of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (Microsoft provides a download link to a time-limited version of that as well). There are x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) versions available for download.
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