Sorry - I got one important word wrong when I posted previously that the release launch date had been announced for SQL Server 2008.
It turns out that Feb 27th 2008 is the launch date and not the release date. I should have known better, this is the same scheme that the mighty Microsoft marketing machine came up with for the 2005 launch. Oh well - it should be a good party anyway and with any luck the actually release date will be about the same time.