Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 is an unsupported (by now, except for Azure customers) server operating system from Microsoft, the previous version of which was Windows Server 2003.

This operating system was codenamed named Windows Server "Longhorn", but on May 15, 2007,  Bill Gates announced its official name on Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2007.

This operating system has several new features compared to its previous version. Many of these new features are present in Windows Vista.

Windows Server 2008 removed support for processors without ACPI. It is the first version of Windows Server that includes Hyper-V and is also the final version of Windows Server that supports x86-based processors (also know as IA-32-based or 32-bit processors). Its successor, Windows Server 2008 R2 requires a 64-bit processor in any supported architecture (x86-64 for x86 and Itanium).

References

Other websites
Microsoft

Microsoft TechCenter for Windows Server 2008
New Networking Features in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista – lengthy article from Microsoft Technet covering new networking features in detail
Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 Technical Overview

Others
Screenshots of Server Components from Latest Longhorn Builds 
ZDnet UK article
News.com
computerperformance.co.uk 
winsupersite.com Preview 
winsupersite.com Preview 2 

Category:Microsoft operating systems
Category:Windows Server