Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0)

Today Microsoft announced the release of Service Pack 2 for MOSS 2007  (Office SharePoint Server 2007) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Both Packs are available now for download at Microsoft download center. Ref. following links to download Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148404

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148403

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148351

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148352

As mention by Jie Li on SharePoint Product Team Blog Service pack 2 includes following enhancements

• Performance and Availability Improvements

Service Pack 2 includes many fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms, including:

• New Timer job automatically rebuilds content database index to improve database performance.
• When a content database is marked as read-only, the user interface will be modified so users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database.
• Performance enhancement across nearly all the components.
• Improved Interoperability

Service Pack 2 continues to improve SharePoint interoperability with other products and platforms.

• Broader support of browsers
  Internet Explorer 8 is added into Level 1 browser support.
  FireFox 2.0/3.0 is added into Level 2 browser support.
• Provide improved client integration user experience with Form Based Authentication. Now the client application can store user credentials instead of asking for them every time. For more technical details please refer to the updated articles on TechNet.
  Configure forms-based authentication (Office SharePoint Server
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262201.aspx
  Configure forms-based authentication (Windows SharePoint Services)
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288043.aspx
• Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010

A new preupgradecheck operation is added to stsadm tool. It can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14". It identifies issues that could present obstacles to the upgrade process. It checks for several SharePoint Products and Technologies "14" system requirements, including the presence of Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 and a 64-bit hardware, and provides feedback and best practice recommendations for your current environment, together with information on how to resolve any issues that the tool discovers. 

The full explanation of SP2 benefits can be downloaded here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551

 

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint-server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx