Lover of quiet computers Posted April 25, 2003 Share Posted April 25, 2003 I would appreciate knowing what people think about this question: How well would Windows Server 2003 work for a home user, as an alternative to Windows XP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 Depends on what you want to do. I wouldn't recommend it as a desktop system since it would be optimised for server services like web serving, routing, DHCP, DNS, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted April 26, 2003 Share Posted April 26, 2003 That you did! Anyway, the cost of a server OS would be a little steep if you were planning just to use it as a desktop OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Posted April 27, 2003 Share Posted April 27, 2003 There are guides out there to optimize it to be more of a workstation than a server. My guess would be that you may lose a bit of stability should you choose to change too much around.Check out:http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/index.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 28, 2003 Share Posted April 28, 2003 I would not recommend home users to use Windows 2003 Server family as Xp workstation. The problem is that it is very costy. Windows 2003 Enterprise Server costs about 3 grand. So if you have some money laying around, you could buy it just to feel its stability and efficiency.Windows Longhorn is actually the next OS workstation for home users. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 Cost is certainly an issue. You could go with the Standard Edition for under $1000 (retail) with 5 client licenses. You could even use the Web version for under $500 but you would not be able to run any serious applications like SQL.What you don't realize is that MS has raised the hardware bar with Win2K3 Server. Hardware that runs perfectly under Win2K and XP refuses to operate under 2K3. It is not an issue of drivers not being available from the different hardware manufacturers. It was not designed to play games on. It is neither a "workstation" or "toystation" but rather a kickass OS in the server closet.Many things we all take for granted in Win2K Pro or XP Pro are turned off by default in Win2K3. There is no support for USB LAN devices for instance. Support for sound has to be turned on. Plug a USB camera in and nothing happens... by design.We have been running RC2 for 7 months on 5 servers. We just began migrating them to the RTM version.Your welcome to give it a shot. First thing you'll notice is the hardware compliance check that takes place before any install or upgrade has begun. Red flags on hardware or applications and there will be no install or upgrade. Yellow flags and you may get it installed but you won't be very happy... We have been there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imranj Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 Well currently i am runnning the RC2 code of Win2k3 Enterprise server..........u know the build .Well my exprience says that.........i have being able to all the things that i wanted to do in..........xp.......except for some applications refusing to install in Win2k3........and also have being able to run most of the applications from my xp sp1 pro installation.Stabilit is wow.....i use it for days.....and days without any need for reboot or system unstability.......and when ever i use Xp Pro i feel its so slow...can crash anytime.......and hey games run well too in Win2k3..........sound is as good as xp..........runs sweetly on my AMD K7 800 KX 133 Gigabyte.....512mb SDRAM.........and also happy that Longhorn is being built upon WIn2k3 code base.....well if i just could get links to article to see what changes has being made........in win2k3's kernel......i have heard that they are using the new scheduler.....no info in the changes in the VM ya other places........too.........hmm u have any idea ppl? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 Cost is certainly an issue. You could go with the Standard Edition for under $1000 (retail) with 5 client licenses. You could even use the Web version for under $500 but you would not be able to run any serious applications like SQL.What you don't realize is that MS has raised the hardware bar with Win2K3 Server. Hardware that runs perfectly under Win2K and XP refuses to operate under 2K3. It is not an issue of drivers not being available from the different hardware manufacturers. It was not designed to play games on. It is neither a "workstation" or "toystation" but rather a kickass OS in the server closet.Many things we all take for granted in Win2K Pro or XP Pro are turned off by default in Win2K3. There is no support for USB LAN devices for instance. Support for sound has to be turned on. Plug a USB camera in and nothing happens... by design.We have been running RC2 for 7 months on 5 servers. We just began migrating them to the RTM version.Your welcome to give it a shot. First thing you'll notice is the hardware compliance check that takes place before any install or upgrade has begun. Red flags on hardware or applications and there will be no install or upgrade. Yellow flags and you may get it installed but you won't be very happy... We have been there...Thanks for pointing out the "hardware bar"In fact, Linksys 10/100 mb Etherfast is no longer being supported in Windows 2003 since build 3615...3718 is RC2, which is out of questionMy server has migrated to RTM 3790 many days before April 24th due to the volume licensing agreement between my university and Microsoft. My solution to Linksys drver is to rip the driver from Windows Xp.Keep in mind that this "hardware bar" seems to not just affect Windows 2003, but also Windows Longhorn. From my experience, Longhorn doesn't come with the drivers for a number of hardwares either. You guess it. Linksys 10/100 Mb Etherfast is not supported yet in Longhorn.ThunderRiver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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