Windows Server 2003 R2 questions

[Groltz]

Does anyone here have hands-on familiarity with this OS?

I recently obtained it, and would like to try running it as my desktop OS such as Greg is doing.

The R2 version comes with 2 CDs, the first CD is Server 2003 (SP1 slipstream), the second CD is the R2 add-on package.

My question is this: Are there any components, additions, or upgrades on the R2 CD that would be of any use to someone using the OS on a home PC?
I would consider not bothering to install the R2 CD if there isn't anything useful on it.

I've read some reviews/overviews of R2 already but wanted to get some practical answers on it. Most people don't run Server 2003 on home machines.

Thanks,

-s

 

[Sol]

I don't know of anything useful on the second disk. I've been running 2003 as a desktop OS without it for a few months and I haven't missed anything...

 

[Clocker]

What's the advantage to running it as your Desktop OS rather than XP Pro?

 

[Groltz]

I want to try it out from curiosity more than anything else.

Some have said that it carries less eye-candy bloat than XP, which I would find positive.

 

[Mercutio]

Newer version of the kernel which is considerably faster.
Bunches of crap that's built into XP turned off by default (e.g. themes) and lower base memory use.
Better hardware support (more stuff works by default).
Better security: IE is restricted from doing anything remotely dangerous.
Better management.
Less obnoxiousness over updates and the like.

Down side: Every once in a while, apparently (it hasn't happened to me), there's software that won't run on "server" versions of Windows.

 

[Bozo]

R2 as such did not add a lot of "Features" to 2003. It fixed a lot of things internally. I ran it for a couple months and found it even more stable than 2003 SP1. (Stable might be a bad choice of words....it just seemed to be better than the standard install)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/r2/whatsnewinr2.mspx

For the desktop, maybe not nesessary, but I would install it anyway. There were enough bug fixes in it to make it worthwhile.

Bozo :joker:

 

[timwhit]

From Wikipedia.

New features from R2

* Branch Office Server Management

o Centralized management tools for file and printers
o Enhanced Distributed File System (DFS) namespace management interface
o More-efficient WAN data replication with Remote Differential Compression​

* Identity and Access Management

o Extranet Single Sign-On and identity federation
o Centralized administration of extranet application access
o Automated disabling of extranet access based on Active Directory account information
o User access logging
o Cross-platform web Single Sign-On and password synchronization using Network Information Service (NIS)​

* Storage Management

o File Server Resource Manager (storage utilization reporting)
o Enhanced quota management
o File screening limits files types allowed
o Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks (SAN) (storage array configuration)​

* Server Virtualization

o A new licensing policy allows up to 4 virtual instances​

* Utilities and SDK for UNIX-Based Applications add-on, giving a relatively full Unix development environment.

o Base Utilities
o SVR-5 Utilities
o Base SDK
o GNU SDK
o GNU Utilities
o UNIX Perl
o Visual Studio Debugger Add-in​

 

[Groltz]

Tim's post was my point for asking the questions above.

R2 doesn't seem to contain any bug fixes or enhancements for the existing OS. Just the add-ons he listed.

 

[Mercutio]

Along the lines of getting something that sucks less than XP, Microsoft is also preparing a simplified version of 32-bit Windows called "Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs."

Supposedly, it'll run on 233MHz PCs with as little as 64MB RAM, and there's an option to boot directly to an RDP client on a diskless PC as well.

Bink.nu has details.

It doesn't seem to be present in MSDN Subscriber downloads yet.

 

[P5-133XL]

Along the lines of getting something that sucks less than XP, Microsoft is also preparing a simplified version of 32-bit Windows called "Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs."

Supposedly, it'll run on 233MHz PCs with as little as 64MB RAM, and there's an option to boot directly to an RDP client on a diskless PC as well.

Bink.nu has details.

It doesn't seem to be present in MSDN Subscriber downloads yet.

Windows fundamentals for legacy PC's is supposed to be avail. only to Software Advantage subscribers. Seems to me as simply another way of selling/using terminal services, since that is effectively what it is -- A remote terminal session with most software running on another machine.

 

[Splash]

This is a software project that MS has been working on for a while, what I recall was being called "Eiger."

It's just MS's answer to thin clients; get a old recycled $50 PC or a *cheap* new computer designed for this sort of activity and run "Eiger" on it. The applications run in a terminal server session on a far more capable multi-processor server with lots of RAM.

PS: What happened to my avatar???