Well, minecraft will leave its beta state and will be called 1.0 (blame notch, he should have never called the beta versions 1.*)
It will be released today, so, if you want to continue to play 1.8.1, don't update when it asks too, or, keep both versions, in the previous topic about rc, there's hot to maintain both versions manually.
About the survival server, well, I'll have to spawn a new map, due to changes in the stronghold and villages generation. But there will be a portal world, where you'll all be able to spawn in the servers different worlds (this survival, new survival, creative and maybe others).
Hope for Vchest to be updated as well lots of other plugins too, mainly factions, till then its a matter of waiting for it to become stable.
Have fun folks!