there is a fine line between agile and fragile
I've been running Windows Server 2008 as my main OS for my laptop or a while now and I'm still very happy with it.
Running it as a desktop OS requires a few configuration changes from the default install, and there is now a Windows Server 2008 Workstation Converter application available that does the tweaks for you. I haven't tested it myself yet, but it looks promising. Check it out!
Last night I jumped in and decided to install go forward with my grand plan, namely running Windows Server 2008 as my laptop OS.
After making sure that I had backed up everything I might be needing
from the old Windows XP install, I basically wiped the whole laptop and
started fresh. A couple of partition deletions later, the Windows
Server 2008 install was underway and on my Lenovo ThinkPad T60 the
installation was pretty much done in 15 minutes.
Thats right, 15 minutes from the install started until I was able to logon for the first time.
No questions are asked during install. No computer name setup, no passwords, nothing. You can pretty much stick the media in the computer, go have a cup of coffee or something, and come back to finalize your installation. Hands off installation at it's very best.
After the first logon, you get presented with the "Server Manager" which under the "Features Summary" states 0 of 36 features installed. Is this really Microsoft? They have 36 features you can add, and they don't force you to disable the ones you don't need? You actually need to make an active choice to enable the features you want? Thats great!
The "Server Manager" itself warrants a post of it's own. By far the best management console to come out of Redmond to date, and the ability to have diagnostics, roles, and features all in one central place like this is something that has been in demand for years. Well done!
On to driver installation. Most drivers were automatically installed, after all Server 2008 shares kernel and codebase with Windows Vista, so this was to be expected. The drivers that Server 2008 didn't handle on it's own, were for the most part handled by Lenovo System Update which identifies my system as Vista. The only thing I'm missing at this point are the Bluetooth drivers, but I'm pretty sure they'll install without much problems after a manual download from Lenovo.
Of course, running Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS means that you will have to manually configure a few items. Unlike previous Windows Server versions, Server 2008 is pretty much locked down when installed. After all, who needs Aero, Windows Media Player and Wireless connectivity on their servers? It is a server OS after all. Well, as it turns out, I do. If you can call Aero a need that is, but I just had to try and enable it to compare performance with Vista.
The first "problem" was wireless connectivity. The wireless driver for my laptop seemed to be installed ok, but I was competely unable to find, and much less connect to, any wireless network. This was pretty infortunate, as I only use the laptop on wireless connectivty at home. Sitting on the floor with a cable attached to my wireless access point wasn't much fun, so I had to tackle that issue first.
The solution is pretty straight forward, and makes perfect sense, but if you don't know where to look it might pose a problem getting wireless to work.
As I mentioned earlier, Wireless LAN features are not installed by default. All you have to do, is to add the "Wireless LAN Feature" to the server. That brings us to the new "Server Manager" console that Microsoft provides in Server 2008. Start "Server Manager", click on "Features" then go to "Add Features" and right at the bottom you'll find "Wireless LAN Service".
The second issue, if you want to call it an issue, is that by default Internet Explorer is locked down with the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configration settings. For the most part thats a good idea, and I'll leave it enabled on all my real servers at work, but when using it as a desktop OS it is just annoying. Disabling it is a bit different that from Server 2003, but it's a very quick procedure in Server 2008. In Server Manager browse to the Security Information section and click "Configure IE ESC". 
Now, to enable Aero features there are a couple of things that needs to be done. First, use the "Add Features Wizard" to add "Desktop Experience". This requires a reboot, but thats not all, you also need to start the "Theme" service, which is disabled by default. When you have logged back in, launch "Server Manger" and browse to "Configuration" -> "Services" and locate the "Themes" service. Change the value from "Disabled" to "Automatic" and start the service. After the service starts, right click on the Desktop select "Personalize" and set the theme to Windows Vista. 
I've installed most of my day to day work applications on the newly installed laptop. Lotus Notes 8, VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client, Firefox etc. The only problem I've encountered so far, was installing MSN Live. The standard download doesn't install on Server operating systems, but there is an alternative download available. I've seen that others have experienced problems with running VMware Workstation 6 and Hyper-V simultaneously, but I've yet to test Hyper-V here, nor run any VMware products on top of it. While I plan on testing out Hyper-V on this system, I have to prioritize VMware Server for now. I still have a few template images I need to create, both personally and for the Gallery team.
I might be running the most expensive laptop OS in the world, but so far I'm extemely happy with it. I was even able to join the work domain remotely, via our Firepass SSL VPN solution. I had a small problem with the initial logon for my user account though, as the VPN client wasn't running when the logon box appears. That was easiliy solved by logging on as a local administrator, connecting to the SSL VPN, switching user account and then logging on with my domain user.
Windows Server 2008 performs better, even with the Aero features enabled, than Vista ever did on the same hardware. To
me, this a bit strange, even if a lot of services are still disabled,
as the codebase is pretty much the same as Vista. For all I know, Vista
might perform better now that Service Pack 1 has been released, but I
don't anticipate changing back any time soon. Another factor here is
that I had the 32bit version of Vista installed, while I'm now running
64bit Server 2008. How much of a difference that really makes, I don't
know.
My experience with Windows Server 2008 so far really makes me want to get started with upgrading my domain at work and all my servers. I'm literally acing to run adprep /forestprep and adprep /domainprep right now, but I'll wait until I'm physically at work though.
Mr. Patrick O'Rourke from the Microsoft Server Divison, if you are still reading this site please send my regards to the whole development team. You've made a great desktop OS, I'm confident it will be great on my servers as well.
For some time, I've been having some issues with how Lenovo System Update uses the computers Regional Settings to determine which language it should use when installing drivers and software.
It turns out that there is indeed a way to override the automatic language selection, without having to resort to changing your Windows Regional Settings.
While reading through deployment documents for Active Directory integrated System Update, I found this little gem:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\System Update]
"LanguageOverride"="EN"
That registry setting sets a language override that System Update checks before it determines which language to use. If the registry key is not present, or has invalid data in it, System Update does it's normal auto detection.
Valid two- and three- letter language codes are the following:
Finally an easy way to override the language selector, and prevent Lenovo from "polluting" your computer with localized software you don't want.
A couple of days ago I complained that Lenovo had not made a Vista compatible version of System Update available now that the Vista launch date has been reached.
Seems they have put things right now though, as ThinkVantage System Update 3.0 has just been released, with Vista support. They have even thrown in a language selector this time, something I've complained to Lenovo about earlier. Previous versions of System Update detected your regional settings when installing drivers, which meant that if I "forgot" to set my keyboard layout to us-en I ended up with the norwegian localized versions of the drivers. I never run localized versions of Microsoft software, or any other software for that matter, and having localized system utilities and drivers on a non-localized installation looks really strange. This problem is now gone, as you can select which language you want. Good job Lenovo!
Update: See comment below
I still can't seem to find all the drivers and software for Vista, but at least the process of looking for them is much easier now that the System Update tool supports it. I'm sure the missing bits'n'pieces will show up soon as well.