Part of my ramping-up at Microsoft Canada included some broad overviews of the "biggest product launch in Microsoft's history" - that being Launch Wave 2008.  Pretty exciting stuff to see from the inside.

What I can reveal (and is already widely-reported elsewhere) is that the launch will revolve around three major products:

1. Windows Server 2008 (aka Longhorn)
2. Visual Studio 2008
3. SQL Server 2008

They will be released in roughly that order, with WS2008 at the end of Feb, VS2k8 in the first half of the year and SQL Server 2008 at the end of the year.

There's been a great deal of thought put into the launch of these products with respect to Microsoft's vision for the continuation and evolution of their platforms.  Key words to watch out for include virtualization, security and management.  There are a whack of features in the new server OS that I think will go a significant distance toward eroding the misconception in some minds that Linux + LAMP is the only way to go for web delivery.

If you get WS 2008 adopted in your organization, you're really providing a gateway that will help you realize greater scalability and upgrade potentials as you begin to roll out more applications.

For more info check out the launch site for the Heroes Happen Here initiative - there's links for registering for launch events plus a free time-trial download of WS2008, VS2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Via Bink.nu, news straight outta Redmond that the hitherto model for distributing WSS (ie. a separate, free download vs. OOTB bundle) is being revived.  The reason?

Starting with RC1 and going forward, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 will have to be downloaded separately. Basically, we made this decision to allow customers to most conveniently obtain the technology while allowing Microsoft to have flexibility in the Windows SharePoint Services development process.

Oookaaaaaay.  I'm not sure how it's going to be more convenient for me to have to download the 70 MB+ install for WSS (excluding SPs, etc.) than have the core version installed by default or at least something that could be configured to install during setup - but that's just me.  Further, WSS was never integrated into the core for Windows Server 2003 - it always was a bolt-on that sat atop the .NET/ASP.NET framework - so, how is this impacting development again?

Maybe recent news on the Windows Server vs. Linux market share front is prompting this decision to encourage even greater penetration - but WSS seems like a no-brainer for the environments that Windows Server will be installed against, especially if you're giving it away and using it as a loss-leader to get MOSS 2007 in the back-door.