[dayglored]

> MS needs to move away from the 5 year cycle and maybe go to 10. They are not really providing much benefit for the cost.

It's worse than that, IMO. The latest changes in Windows Server appear to me to be merely rearrangements of the GUI -- superficial, needless, and troublesome. I don't want a server OS that has a GUI based on a first-gen tablet UI, but that's Server 2012R2. We hates it we does.... OS for nassssssty hobbitses.

Frankly I'd much rather work with a commandline and/or Server 2003's UI than 2012R2, which is a shame because 2012R2 seems to be a really strong release, other than the stupid UI. So I'm really hoping that 2016 reverts back to common sense. It's a server, dammit, not a freaking handheld for 20-somethings.

Just my opinion, of course, others obviously like that stuff...

[Alas Babylon!]

It is far more than a GUI.

See What's New in Windows Server Technical Preview

I like the new features in Hyper-V, the new Server Antimalware feature, and big additions and changes to Storage Spaces.

I run all my servers now as virtual machines. The only thing I have native on the hardware is the Hyper-V role. Facilitating failover and supportability of these virtual machines is going to be the highlight of the new server.