The release candidate versions of Microsoft’s upcoming Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 are now available for download from the company website.

Microsoft product manager and Windows Vista launch team member Nick White spoke on these new releases, “The release candidate phase of beta software is typically the final phase before the release-to-manufacturing of a product and indicates that the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability.”

Microsoft corporate vice president Michael Sievert added about the products, “While piracy rates are hard to measure precisely, we’re seeing indications from internal metrics, like WGA validation failures, that the Windows Vista piracy rate is less than half that of Windows XP today.”