Mai Lan posted an article on the details of what to expect in R2
The most interesting thing is that several of the most useful "out of band" downloads that you add on the server, FTP, Dav, and Admin Pack specifically are now considered part of the server distribution. I haven't validated this, but this probably means they are part of the installation options on the server with equivalent optional component, automated installation options.
This is very good news on two fronts. Often, companies forbid the use of "out of band" additions to IIS even if it's from Microsoft as they may not be fully supported and there's a stigma that if the code is not part of the core platform, then it shouldn't be trusted. This means that the IIS team is making a statement that this code is production quality for server - which is a big deal, as it is tested a gillion ways before release. My guess is that we can expect to see more of this - code released out of band by the IIS team, becomes incorporated into the core product. The second part is that updates to the code will occur automatically through windows update.
Speaking of core produce. Core server will acquire the ability to run asp.net! YES! To be honest, I was always a bit backed off core server as an IIS engine, although it makes a great ISAPI delivery vehicle, since it didn't have .NET capabilities (meaning no integrated pipeline). Adding .NET to core opens a lot of doors to have smaller footprint .NET servers that you manage with Powershell and of course, to make that vision real...
R2 comes with an IIS powershell provider.
Yeah! Looking forward to this...
-brett