Microsoft will release Windows 2008 Server as the direct successor to Windows 2003 Server in the spring of next year. The new server OS, also known under the code name Longhorn, shares a code base with Windows Vista and incorporates many additions.

Using the completely revamped server management console, configuration and administration of the new server becomes much simpler. The new Internet Information Server 7 also sports a new user interface. With virtualization technology integrated directly into the operating system, third party tools or solutions are no longer necessary to use virtual machines and the like. Lastly, administrators are as up-to-date as it gets, since Windows 2008 Server includes all of the components slated for inclusion in Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista.

Tom’s Hardware took a look at the first release candidate, version RC0. Generally speaking, release candidates are very close to the final product and are distributed to testers primarily in order to find bugs. New features are not to be expected in the later release candidates, though. What we see here today is most definitely what users will get in the final version. Thus, a look at RC0 should allow us to draw conclusions about the final release.

Although the Server 2008 may have the Vista kernel under its hood, that does not mean that administrators will be greeted with colourful windows using the Aero interface. Understandably, Microsoft’s focus lay on the server-related issues in implementing improvements, and so the management aspect took precedence over design.

Nonetheless, even if the primary purpose of a server OS is not to look good, Windows Server 2008 offers the option of installing the new, colourful design. Thus, even jaded system administrators can get a little bit of that Vista feeling and see if the “Wow” really does start now.