Ward Ralston, senior technical product manager for the software at Microsoft, says downloads of Longhorn Beta 3 are available from the company’s Web site. He expects hundreds of thousands of information technology workers to download the beta version of the software.

This is the first time that Microsoft has released Longhorn to the public. The software giant says this is also the first time users can get a look at the new scripting and command-line technology, Microsoft PowerShell, in the Longhorn server. The technology, which enables administrators to more easily automate tasks across Windows servers on a network, was previously available as an add-on, but is now built directly into Longhorn.

Ralston says customers can get a first look at two new Longhorn features including a new always-on firewall in Server Manager and an installation option called Server Core.

Longhorn, which will replace the current Windows Server 2003, is the server operating system equivalent to Microsoft's new Windows Vista PC operating system with an emphasis on many of the same features such as better security, says Microsoft.

Last week, Microsoft announced it has completed the purchase of a 44-acre site in San Antonio's Westover Hills development to build a 470,000-square-foot data center after a year-long selection process.