Want to try the latest beta, er, Community Technical Preview of SQL Server 2008 (aka Katmai)? Don't have a spare machine? Download a pre-configured virtual machine.

I've been installing the CTPs into my own custom-built virtual machines, but this looks like a more convenient way to go. The download consists of a VHD (virtual hard drive) file, which you can add to a new VM configuration in either Microsoft Virtual PC (free download here) or Microsoft Virtual Server (free download here).

The CTP VHD will want about 10gb of disk space and 512MB of RAM allocated. I'd suggest increasing the RAM allocation to 1gb if you have it to spare.