It's been a bit of a rocky road for Microsoft's Windows Home Server 2 development team, but it looks like the end is finally near. According to a message posted to the official WHS Twitter account, the team has finished work on the 'Vail' release candidate, meaning that it could be made available very soon.
Apparently (courtesy of a screen grab by Robert McLaws), the tweet read "Woo hoo! We signed off on the final #RC (Release Candidate) of #vail this morning. On connect soon". Unfortunately, it was deleted soon afterwards, suggesting that the announcement might have been a little premature. As ever, though, nothing on the internet is ever deleted.
Even so, this is a pretty strong indication that the Vail Release Candidate is ready to go - or at least, very close to - meaning that enthusiastic testers will be able to put it through its paces soon.
In addition, WinRumors reports that it has been reliably informed that the RC will be made available to the public on Thursday.
Unfortunately, while there's still no news on the status of Drive Extender in the next version of WHS, it's looking unlikely that it'll magically reappear. The popular feature was axed in November, causing a furore from Home Server fans who saw it as one of the defining features of the original version. Although Microsoft hasn't given any official update on the status of the feature, Steve Ballmer acknowledged the outcry and agreed to look into the matter, meaning that Drive Extender may make a return at some point in the future.
