This morning, Microsoft announced that Essential Business Server 2008 development will stop in June 2010.
Support will continue for the next 5 years, so no need to panic!
Existing customers will be able to trade-in EBS licensing for Standard versions of the products that make up EBS including CAL’s e.g. 3 x Standard Windows Server 2008, 1 x Exchange, TMG, Forefront etc.
Microsoft have some FAQ’s here
EBS is a great product. I would like to thank all those people who put a massive effort (over 5 years of development) into bring EBS to market. I was lucky enough to do one of the first implementations in New Zealand and found the team at Microsoft very helpful and responsive in my hour of need (more than once actually). I am sure those talented guys will be put to good use on new things.
I have a tear in my eye 😦
SharePoint lightbulb moments 
I was about to purchase it, but now I am thinking that stand alone may be a better option and then i will be able to take advantage of the latest technologies (2008R2, Exchange 2010, etc). However the EBS approach seems so much more simple, and probably a lot cheaper overall.
What would you do?
I have installed a few EBS sites and it is a very good product. However given that many of the nice new features in Windows 2008R2 and Exchange 2010 won’t be available in EBS I would go for the standalone server versions now.
The ability to upgrade PC’s in an SBS domain to 2008 without having to touch the desktops is a big time saving advantage of EBS.
Ultimately it really depends on what your needs are.