Windows OS

I didn't discover this one, so I'm just the messenger passing word on - KB 974571 (part of Patch Tuesday today - specifically related to Crypto-API/ASN1) will make OCS think it is an evaluation version that has expired. Uninstall KB 974571 and OCS works again. You will want to apply the KB once an updated patch, or an updated patch for OCS becomes available. I've verified this problem in my lab too.

Originally documented here.

As you can see from the announcement here, this is pretty big news. One of the biggest complaints about the PIC (public IM) functionality of OCS is the fact that it would not interface with Jabber/Google Talk. Thankfully, that all changes today with the release of the XMPP Gateway.

On a bad note, it looks as though virtualization of this role isn't officially supported, but I am hoping that changes as time goes on and Microsoft can run the software components through the various validation tests. The other unfortunate aspect is that it cannot be co-located on an Edge server role.

All in all, a step in the right direction. They also announced that the AOL PIC license shares the same type of "free"-ness that the MSN PIC license received a few months ago. Basically if you have LCS/OCS Standard CAL with Software Assurance, the MSN and AOL PIC licenses get thrown in with the deal.