SBS2003 SP1 Beta has been launched

Wayne blogged about the SBS2003 SP1 beta launch already but I figured I post some more details.

This is the word from Microsoft...

The beta has been launched in English and German only at this time. Key goals include:

• Maintain the OEM 15 minute install experience - personally I don't like this one as I feel it's going to give misleading perceptions to end users, however it's a great marketing story. The truth here is the 15 minutes is for the OEM install where you get to the To Do list and from here the real work starts in terms of creating users, computers, setting up shares, Internet connectivity etc etc. For the record I never use this though as I don't like all the components to be on the one partition with the operating system so I ALWAYS start from scratch. YMMV but most of the other SBS-MVPs concur with this line of thought.
• Provide latest service packs and updates for our beloved SBS servers
• Provide and support ISA2004 for SBS2003 Premium users

Whilst testing this beta, we'll get to see the integration between Windows Server 2003 SP1, Exchange Server 2003 SP1, Sharepoint SP1 and Outlook SP1. The Exchange IMF will still need to be installed separately if you don't already have it (I believe).

I hope to be able to download a copy of SP1 over the weekend and play with it a bit - I feel like it's Christmas all over again :) I plan to post back feedback on the beta - as much as I'm allowed to anyway without breaking my NDA.

Plus, I'd like to present this beta to the Adelaide SBS Users Group (see last post) at our February meeting (again I'll need to check with MS on this to make sure I'm allowed to show it).

Congratulations to the SBS dev team for a great product so far, which can only get better with this latest update when it's officially released. SBS Rocks!!