RE: MS Server OS's : Don't get it

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lots of questions there... unfortunately, I don't have lots of
answers,
because in most cases the answer is... it depends...

forget windows 2000, - that's now deprecated. Even Windows server 2003
is now superceded by Windows server 2008, although that's only *just*
been released, so 2003 is very much still a current product.

Widows home server is designed to run headless, but any of the others
*can* - just don't plug in a monitor... ;-) - the management tools for
2003 can be installed on any other (windows) client on the LAN, plus you
can always RDP to the server.

Windows Home Server is also _designed_ to be a closed system, - in as
much as MS intend that you don't (or can't) install "ordinary"
Windows
applications on it, - they want you to only install "made for
WHS" apps
on it. - But as it is based on the 2003 server codebase, you absolutely
CAN enable it to do double-duty as a "normal" Windows 2003 server
as
well... (there are some caveats, but for the most part it works fine).

However, for the most part, almost everything that server 2003 can do,
XP can do as well, - albeit perhaps in a slightly less "robust"
manner?... - but everything on your list below can be accomplished on XP
(as you obviously already know, 'cos you're doing it!). Switching to a
server OS wouldn't necessarily add or remove any functionality -
although there are a couple of things that aren't in the server OS's as
microsoft consider them consumer features, - like uP&P for example, -
but often these can be "hacked" back in, since (almost) anything
that
works on XP will work on server 2003, - including device drivers etc.

The benefits it *will* bring will be things like:
more networking features, DHCP, DNS, etc. etc. etc.
generally more "robust" operation, - very infrequently need to
reboot,
almost never crashes etc...
support for more client connections
support for more remote sessions (up to 3 including the console session)

That's just a *REALLY* simplistic view of some of the differences, -
there are too many to list them all...

HTH

Paul G.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of noughtomate
> Sent: 16 May 2008 11:11
> To: UKHA Group
> Subject: [ukha_d] MS Server OS's : Don't get it
>
> Hi,
>
> - Some newbie questions -
>
> I have a NAS box which I use as a Backup device and a Media Server
> for distrbuting Videos and Audio around the house. This NAS is
> Debian Linux based, of which I have very little experience but I
> have managed to install Slimserver on to it to allow playback on
> Music on my Squeezebox.
>
> I now want to upgrade my NAS to something Microsoft based, the
> reason being that I have an increasing need to install server side
> applications and all applications that I've been researching are
> Microsoft based.
>
> Ideally I would like this new Server to support :
>  - RAID Mirrored Backups
>  - Media Server using FTP, Samba, uPnP. NFS would be a nice to have
>  - Family web portal
>  - Slimserver
>  - Downloads server
>   -Caller ID Server application (TapiRex)
>  - X10, Z-Wave and IR Home Automation Server (mControl)
>  - MyMovies server application
>  - USB, eSATA and Firewire connectivity
>
> What I'm struggling with is what the Microsoft suite of Server OS's
> can do for me. Various folks on this forum are using Windows Server
> 2000, 2003 or Home Server but I don't understand how these are
> different from XP. I've not seen these OS's running so I don't know
> how they are used.
>
> The above applications I know will work with XP, but does that imply
> they will work for work for these Server OS's ?
>
> Okay... So XP contains alot of Bloatware and is limited to 10 active
> connections concurrently but are these Server OS's any better ?
>
> Also, are the Server OS's headless (i.e. No monitor required) ?
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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