News
Windows Server 2003 Unleashed
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer officially unleashed Windows Server 2003 today during an official launch party in San Francisco this morning.
(San Francisco) Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer officially unleashed
Windows Server 2003 today during an official launch party in San Francisco
this morning. The launch, broadcast to several locations nationwide, capped
a three-year development cycle that included delays brought on by, among,
other things, antitrust compliance and Trustworthy Computing Initiative
security reworkings.
A Windows Server 2003 180-day evaluation kit is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/
trial/default.mspx. At the moment, it's only available in English,
but the company says that it plans to localize the kit within the next
few weeks.
Steve Ballmer's keynote presentation from San Francisco will be available
on demand at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/launch/
keynotewebcast.mspx.
On the certification front, the company did not release any new exam
information at the event. Beta versions of the first core exams for the
MCSE on Windows Server 2003—70-290:
Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment, 70–291:
Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network
Infrastructure, 70-293:
Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure,
70-294:
Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory
Infrastructure —so far are still targeted for release in June this
year, according the exam objectives guides on the MCP Web site. (Also
expected in June are beta exams for 70-292:
Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2003 for an MCSA on Windows 2000
and 70-296:
Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining Windows Server 2003 for an MCSE
on Windows 2000, which are upgrade exams.)
Microsoft in March also released its Microsoft
Skills Assessments, currently a free service that allows IT professionals
to assess ongoing learning of Windows Server 2003. The company says that
more than 15,000 people have taken the assessment since it was made available.
[More news from the launch event will be available on the Web site
tomorrow.—Michael Domingo, Editor]
About the Author
Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.