“Microsoft has reached a major milestone today for its Windows Server and Client products. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service pack 1 have been released to manufacturing today which means they will soon be available to IT customers and consumers.” Computerworld already has a review up, and claims there is much to like in Server 2008; eWeek is positive in their review too.
I used Server 2003 as my main desktop OS for quite some time. I have to say it was extremely stable and very responsive. I’d say about 98% of the software that worked on XP worked flawlessy on Server 2003 and that’s including games as well!
Server 2003 is the best OS ever to come out of Redmond. Hopefully 2008 continues on this trend
*coming from an avid UNIX fan*
I signed up for the Heroes Happen Here launch wave pretty much just to get a free copy of 2k8. Can’t wait to try it out, especially since my laptop has VT in the chip, so I should be able to use the hypervisor.
I used 2008 as my dev machine for a while. Nothing to complain about in the speed or stability department. And it turns out it makes a pretty good server too
(there have been a couple pretty interesting scalability enhancements at the Kernel level… some reordering of operations around hot locks, for instance).
FWIW, though, Server 2008 is basically the same OS as Vista (the cores of the both are the same). If you like a more minimal form of Vista, this OS is for you.
I found the information in the supplied link to be rather spartan regarding Vista SP1. Try this blog instead, by Windows product manager Mike Nash:
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/02/04/a…
There’s a lot of market-speak (using “experience” nearly a dozen times, for example) but at least there’s some meat to it.
A few interesting quotes…
“We are going to stage our rollout of SP1 for current Windows Vista users to be approximately concurrent with the availability of Windows Vista SP1 on new PCs and in stores.”
So, SP1 is technically done. But we gotta wait a little while. No problem.
“Our beta testing identified an issue with a small set of device drivers. These drivers do not follow our guidelines for driver installation and as a result, some beta participants who were using Windows Vista and updated to Service Pack 1 reported issues with these devices. Because the issue was with the way the drivers were installed and not the drivers themselves, the solution was simply to reinstall the drivers.”
OK, so the drivers are actually all right, but are just not installed correctly. Can we just reinstall them and cross our fingers, or do we need new installers to do this? If device suppliers haven’t yet made 100% compatible driver installers, over a year after Vista was launched, I wouldn’t hold my breath on anything happening in the immediate future. Hopefully it’s a small portion of users having these problems.
“While we know that most customers who update from Windows Vista to SP1 will NOT be affected, our approach is to improve the experience for all our customers. To do this, we will begin making SP1 available through Windows Update in mid-March, giving us time to work with some of our hardware partners to make adjustments to the installation process for the affected drivers.”
Even though SP1 is done, it won’t be available for about 5 weeks. Which is a lot shorter time span than the device makers have already had to get the drivers to install properly. Also, doesn’t holding back the release worsen the experience for everyone else NOT affected by the driver issue?
“In the meantime, remember that you can take advantage of the benefits of Windows Vista (including many improvements delivered via Windows Update) even without Service Pack 1.”
Um, thanks. I think. Ah well. It’s progress, at least.
Edited 2008-02-05 00:51 UTC
I wonder if the tools will work for admin work under 2008, that is the problem at work my manager wanted me to test out a Vista Business (new workstation) from Dell. But the tools would not work with and the phone client .NET version is not available after being out nearly a year.
I am for operating systems getting along with each other because businesses run a Linux distro (Red Hat) and they run Windows Servers for email, AD and so on. I am ready to try out 2008.
First there was 2003, then 2003 R2 and now 2008, all the in space of 5 years ???
MS must be desperate for cash.
I am not sure about the cash, but the mix of all of the operating systems is starting to become more of a pain. Especially when software vendors are not supporting them with a whole heart (like Vista)…
Blame Software Assurance
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. So now they release too many in 5 years, or is it they don’t release fast enough? I don’t know because it seems people just love to complain either way
I’m a UNIX systems engineer and am not directly involved with Windows environments, but I do work with people who are. As far as many of my Windows only colleges are concerned, the newest release of the Windows Server family should address many of the requested features they have been longing for.
Of all the new features most avidly awaited, at least in my office, are Server Core and PowerShell. Many a time colleges of mine have expressed their wish for a Windows Server interface that we UNIX engineers take for grand, i.e. a gui-less environment with a powerful, scrip capable CLI.
For me, personally, what is of interest is the read only AD setup. Often, we have to deploy systems in remote offices that do not have IT staff in house and leaving access to an AD server open is a bit disquieting for any engineer who would like to secure all possible back doors into her/his systems.
Here is to hoping my colleges not only get what they have been asking for, but also get a stable platform to work with.
Thanks. We worked hard on Read-only Domain Controllers for the last four years and I hope it meets your Branch Office needs. Alas there isn’t PowerShell support for Active Directory in Windows Server 2008…you’ll have to wait a tad bit longer for that. However, RODC, Full DCs, and AD LDS (ie ADAM) all support Server Core which is great for Branch Offices. We are planning a Windows Server 2008 update to teh 2003 Branch Office Guide sometime in Q2 of this year.
Feedback is welcome.
-RODC team member
I have just installed the rtm sp1 on a toshiba x205 (3000$ laptop). and got explorer to crash when trying to open a folder on my windows server 2003 system, while my ubuntu 7.10 at the same time was able to access that folder without any problems.
Also, HDD indicator is blinking a lot showing a contious use of HDD by windows services, ie it doesn’t allow me to use the system with full attention for my productivity applications, because it is busy helping itself.
Good job MS
As with all SP, treat it with lots of care
Test it on non production system 1st