Windows Server 2008 Behind 'Slow' Microsoft.comWindows Server 2008 Behind 'Slow' Microsoft.com

In tech industry parlance, Microsoft is 'eating its own dog food.'

The company's Microsoft.com Web site is now powered exclusively by servers running its soon-to-be-released Windows Server 2008 operating system.

"Even though Windows Server 2008 is not yet final, Microsoft.com is running solely on Windows Server 2008," said a blog post that appeared Wednesday on a Web site maintained by the Windows Server development team.

Microsoft is also using its new Silverlight presentation technology, which competes with Adobe's Flash, to create pages on its site.

Windows Server 2008 -- code named Longhorn -- is the server version of Microsoft's Windows Vista OS. Stress testing the software on Microsoft.com, the 19th most popular site in the country, according to Web research firm Alexa, should help the company iron out any kinks before it's formally launched in February.

It seems like Microsoft may have some work to do. Alexa currently describes Microsoft.com as "slow" and says it lags behind 75% of sites on the Internet in terms of page load times.

Microsoft recently made a near-final release of Windows Server 2008 widely available as an Internet download.

Windows Server 2008 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) is now available to all users, either as a 30-day trial that does not require a product activation key, or as a six-month trial for which users must register.

Microsoft is scheduled to launch a final version on February 27th at a high profile event in Los Angeles. The event, which the company is calling "Heroes Happen Here," will also be used to unveil Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

Microsoft claims Windows Server 2008 offers a number of significant enhancements over its most recent predecessor, Windows Server 2003.

Among the software's more highly anticipated features are Windows PowerShell, a command line shell with more than 130 management tools and an integrated scripting language; and Internet Information Services 7.0, a built-in Web server that brings together numerous online publishing technologies.