Microsoft has officially released Windows Server 2019. A 180-day trial version can be downloaded here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2019
In addition to Office 2019, Windows Server 2019 is now also available in the Visual Studio subscription:
Windows Server 2019 brings a few interesting features, here is a short (not complete) summary:
With the "Storage Migration Services", older file servers or NAS devices, including data and authorizations, can be migrated to Windows Server 2019.
Storage Replicas were previously reserved for the Datacenter Editions of Windows Server. A slimmed-down version of Storage Replicas for disaster recovery can now also be used in the Standard Edition.
The in-place upgrade of the operating system has also been improved; previously, an in-place upgrade was often not supported or led to problems. This should now change with Windows Server 2019 and work much better.
Support for containers and Kubernetes has also been further improved. Linux VMs can now also be operated as shielded VMs under Hyper-V, previously this was only possible with Windows VMs.
As before, there are essentially two installation types (Core, GUI) and two editions (Standard, Datacenter). Like small companies, there is also an Essentials version, which is still very limited (maximum 25 users / 50 devices).
Installation as Server Core is recommended; administration can be carried out via Windows Admin Center or PowerShell. The GUI version still has the familiar desktop. The GUI version takes up about 10 GB of disk space after installation and uses 1.3 GB of RAM, while the core version requires about 7 GB of disk space and 700 MB of RAM.
There are also some presentations from Ignite 2018 that deal with Windows Server 2019:
Windows Server 2019 will be a prerequisite for Exchange Server 2019, so there is no harm in getting to grips with the new version in good time. The recommendation to install Windows Server 2019 as the core version also applies to Exchange 2019.