Kieran Lal from CivicSpace on Demand has made 1.8 Beta along with Drupal 5.2 available for free (mailing limit restrictions apply) on the CSOD web server. This is good news indeed and helps folks evaluate Drupal 5.2 and CiviCRM 1.8 without the install hassles. For more details you can read Kieran's post on the CiviCRM forums at:
CiviCRM 1.8 Beta sites on CivicSpaceOnDemand available for free