Comments on: Windows Vista vs Windows Server 2008 (Workstation)

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:54:33 +0000

There’s someone who wants Vista licenses in return for Win2k08 Enterprise Server license.

try googling uneit

By: pete

pete — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:02:25 +0000

Server 2008 is downloading from Dreamspark as I type this… O Yes

By: curriegrad2004

curriegrad2004 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:49:30 +0000

Well, for students that know their way around Microsoft, they now have Windows Server 2003 R2 for free via DreamSpark. Server 2003 is like Windows XP with some Vista features like previous versions (VSS).

By October 1st, students are getting Windows Server 2008 for FREE. Yes students are getting Server 2008 for FREE via Microsoft’s own DreamSpark program.

Now I want to stay in school to reap the benefits!

By: abby, the hacker chick blog

abby, the hacker chick blog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:07:11 +0000

Did you come to any conclusions on this? I’m also in the same boat. I’ve got XP 64 on my desktop (which I use for development and 3D stuff that’s requires a lot of processing power & memory). But, honestly, I was really looking forward to Vista so I could access more memory and get away from the compatibility issues.

However, my experience with VistA has been similar to yours – and confirmed by the benchrmarking done on Tom’s Hardware – ugh:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xp-vs-vista,1531.html

So now I’m thinking the new desktop is going to be XP 64bit as well. But, I’m playing with a lot of new .NET/WPF stuff that I think will just have better support in VistA…. ya know, if you’re going to be developing with the latest tools it seems you should be, well, running the latest OS. Blah.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:37:42 +0000

Windows Server 2008, is available at a reasonable price. On amazon.co.ukm Windows Vista costs between £80 and £180, and Windows Server 2008 is £450 upwards. I neither could justify that price. But if you go to technet.microsoft.com you can get a technet subscription for £240 VAT and you get all operating systems office other software (no development stuff though). And if you also do a quick search for technet voucher/discout code, I ended up paying £199 VAT. The VAT is at 21%, so total price is £240 for all microsoft operating systems office = bargain. The license is the same, but for non-production/commercial environment, and uses the term that it’s for “evaluation” without time limits. It’s the exact same software as retail. Plus with the technet subscription you’ll get access to any new software within the subscription period too.

Before you ask I don’t work for Microsoft, but wanted WS2008 as my development environment, and it works quite well. You can add the “desktop” feature and wireless feature to make more like vista.

My only issue is that every works fine on a PC that’s about 3 years old, but got a new one and vista continuously reboots after updates and server 2008 complains about a few updates, but will be contacting Microsoft about this..

Mike.

By: Jan Van Ryswyck

Jan Van Ryswyck — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:23:41 +0000

@Julius I ordered a Windows Vista Ultimate OEM license to go with my new desktop. I’m not particurly happy about it, but 2008 is way out of my league (financially). Awaiting Server 2008 workstation …

By: jmdz1416

jmdz1416 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:46:33 +0000

yes the biggest challenge of MSFT future releases is compatibility ’cause they tend to break codes API’s and ABI’s their expiration was OFF like they documented for Partners Like OUR Company that the API / ABI would expire on 2007 but after SP2 on XP and boom what happened ??

as a matter of fact we create software with security on usb-dongles and any AD-HOC type but hey we recalled last year like 200-devices to support VISTA surprisingly it run on longhorn alpha and beta but on the release we clearly don’t know why it doesn’t work!

Cosumer and Developers are always on the same boat we tend to buy MSFT products documents and support from our side and the after math on the Consumer Side, just a reflection did the GIANT care about the ship that is sinking.

PEACE OUT I know most of the people on MSFT I don’t judge your work I know your work was splendid and great but I think the marketing guys killed it

Bye. Signing OFF…..

By: Julius

Julius — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:01:07 +0000

Keep us posted on what you decide. I’m in the same situation. By now I have only 220 days left of my ‘trial periode’ of Server 2008 Standard.

I hope someone will be able to crack the activation in time. I sure as hell am not buying a license, since I got my notebook with a Vista Business license on it. MicroSoft should think about a website making it able to port your Vista key in a way that you can use Server 2008 as a workstation instead.

By: Jan Van Ryswyck

Jan Van Ryswyck — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:25:58 +0000

@Tristan: They are rather cheap here in Europe . Last year I went to Tech-Ed Europe and I even didn’t get and evaluation DVD.

@RJJ: I’ve been thinking about Ubuntu, but didn’t really consider it because then I need to throw away almost every software license I’ve got (yes, I’m a huge fan of open-source, but I buy software as well).

By: Tristan

Tristan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:24:02 +0000

rjj, thats a good solution unless of course he wants to play with VISTA/WIN2008 features.

Im not sure how ubuntu would deal with the dongles/dvd checks/exe checks etc either.

Vista and win2008 are the same kernel, so the compatibility should be there. If there is a problem with an app though you can always just load a vista vm and use that.

As far as getting it…I recieved a couple free copies at a launch event. Im pretty sure I have recieved free (NFR) copies of every os since nt4. You will have to see if they have any events coming your way, they generally give out some free swag.(the last one i got vs2008, vista ultimate, win2008 32 64, plus a second license for testing it in a vm, coupon for sql server 2008 and i think im missing something else.