Microsoft put out its second Windows Server 2008 release candidate (RC1) Wednesday for anyone, it appears, to download and poke around ahead of the thing's long-awaited launch at the end of February at an event now dubbed 'Heroes happen here.' To take you back, Microsoft had to pull virtualization code out of the operating system just to make that belated date. You might remember that for a while there Long Horn was due at the end of this year. Anyway, Microsoft said some 1.8 million people have gotten evaluation code.