If you're the type of person who trolls around Microsoft's download sites late at night, (and if you are, I'm picturing that you look something like Smigel from the Lord of the Rings movies) then you may have noticed that the company posted a new test build of the Longhorn Server on their site last night. The Community Technology Preview (CTP) is the same code that was originally slated for release last month. Microsoft will release one last CTP in early 2007 before the next major milestone, Beta 3, also in early 2007. The final version of Longhorn is due to ship during the second half of 2007. So, basically, December 2007 at the earliest.

For more on the new CTP build:
- see this ZDnet blog entry [1]