Since rolling out Visual Studio.Net in February--an event that marked the official launch of .Net--Microsoft has been waving its magic wand and applying .Net fairy dust to its Enterprise Servers. A shipping version of Commerce Server got the .Net treatment when it was released in April, as did the beta of Content Management Server, released earlier this month. Now, after a year's delay, Windows .Net Server--the mother of all Enterprise Servers--has arrived in beta form, with a shipping product expected by the end of the year. Interestingly, Windows .Net Server is receiving a less extreme .Net-ification than other Enterprise Servers, although many incremental improvements have been made. Even Microsoft admits that few customers will rip and replace their Windows 2000 Server in favor of Windows .Net Server--although the company hopes that the new release could be just the incentive Windows NT 4.0 Server customers need to upgrade.
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