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Last night I jumped in and decided to install go forward with my grand plan, namely running Windows Server 2008 as my laptop OS.

Installation

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.

Wireless

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".

Internet Explorer Security

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".

Aero:

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.

Other

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.

Conclusion

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.

The 14th, Microsoft made Vista Service Pack 1 available for both MSDN and Technet subscribers. It is also available for Volume License customers via the MVLS site. General availability is still scheduled for mid-March, then via individual download or via Windows Update.

I downloaded and installed on my home computer running Vista Ultimate x64. The installation was very smooth and I've had no problems with it at all. I haven't really dug in deep yet and looked at the improvements that Service Pack 1 promises yet, but at least the installation was without any problems at all. Network copying seems to be much quicker now, but I don't have any real benchmarks to base that on.


More interestingly though, I just noticed that Windows Server 2008 was available to me from MVLS. It might be available on MSDN and TechNet as well for all I know, but I haven't checked.

I plan on running Server 2008 as my Laptop OS, as Vista didn't perform all that well on it. Server 2008 and Vista both share the same kernel, and were basically developed as one branch in house at Microsoft until Vista went RTM.

One small fun fact is that the release version of Server 2008 includes Service Pack 1, so the "I'll wait until the first Service Pack is released before I install it" argument is moot. I don't think Microsoft has done anything like that, since perhaps the Exchange 4 release which, if memory servers right, had a fixup package installed in the final release version. I'm not 100% certain that this was the case though, but something along those lines came to mind when writing this.

Update: Iain McDonald explains why the release version of 2008 has Service Pack 1 included on his MSDN blog post Windows Server 2008 is called SP1. Adventures in doing things right?

The download is under way right now, and will most likely reinstall the laptop some time tonight or tomorrow, depending on when the 2.5GB download is finished.

I'll be back with a more comprehensive post regarding using Server 2008 as a laptop OS after I've been running it for a while.

Welcome to the post I never thought I'd write. I'll just come right out and say it out loud;

I Love Microsoft Vista.

There. I said it, and I'm not being sarcastic at all. After running Vista Business on my Lenovo T60, and Vista Ultimate on my old home built desktop I never thought I would be writing this post at all. My initial experience with those two installs left me with a very poor taste in my mouth and after a couple of months I returned to running Windows XP on the laptop.

I really thought the Lenovo T60 would be able to handle Vista properly. It has a fancy Windows Vista sticker on it, it came preinstalled with Vista and the system specifications seemed to be adequate. Sadly that wasn't the case, and XP does a much better job on that particular piece of hardware.

As for the home desktop, a home built box sporting an old Pentium 4 3.0Ghz HT CPU and 3GB ram and a ATI x1900 GPU, Vista was a real drag. That box ran sluggishly and was pretty much just annoying. I tried sticking to Vista on it though, if for nothing else to get to know it properly. Then faith, karma, or whatever other system you might place your trust in, stepped in and that box silently died one afternoon when I was at work.

I promptly started looking for new components and to start rebuilding the desktop at home. I ended up with the following:

• ABIT IP35 PRO, P35, Socket-775, ATX, Silent Otes2, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB
• Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4DHX DDR2, 2048MB - Kit w/two CL4 1GB Dimm's, E.P.P and DHX
• Antec Performance One P180 Miditower, Black Aluminum
  

Luckily it was my old mainboard that died, not my HDDs so I didn't lose any data (at least not this time around. Remember kids, backups are very handy!). After rebuilding the system I decided to give Vista another chance of convincing me of it's right to existence. Since I went for a Core 2 Quad, I decided that Vista x64 was the way to go. And was I ever surprised?

I've been using the newly built system now for about a week and so far I'm loving it. It is extremely responsive and I couldn't be more happy with it. I have yet to try out some of the heavy duty things I want to use the system for, like running VMware Server to test Gallery on IIS7/IIS8 and so on, but by the looks of it this won't be much of a problem at all.

As for deciding to run both 64bit and Vista, I have yet to experience any driver issues at all. The only software issue I've had so far was that Virtual Clonedrive doesn't run on 64bit Vista, but there are alternatives for it available that does work. All drivers that I have had a use for are available for Vista x64, no problems there at all.

Now, I'm sure a lot of the Vista skeptics out there will come at me saying "If Vista runs smoothly on that system, just imagine what Windows XP or Linux would do on the same hardware". Well, sure. I'm sure that both would run great, but that is not my point. Vista runs so well on now that there is no way I am moving back. to XP. And as far as I'm concerned, running Linux on my desktop is a non-issue. I use Linux servers every day, even manage a few, but in my view it's just not ready to be a desktop OS. It might be some day, but now? No way (Sorry Ubuntu).

As for all the Vista eyecandy, well, I love that too now. Now that my hardware is good enough it works really well. On the old setup it was really annoying, now it's great. It's quick, stable and I've yet to have any issues with it at all.

My conclusion has to be that Vista is excellent, as long as you have the hardware to support it. Never mind the minimum requirements, those are not to be even considered. Go flat our and spend some real money on your setup if you want to use Vista. If you do have a hardware setup similar to the one I have, your Vista experience will be something completely different than what you might be experienced before. For home usage, it's just about perfect. At least for me, now that I have the hardware to support it.

There is of course still issues with Vista. Corporations looking to roll it out on a mass scale in their enterprise are facing huge issues with it. I know that there is no way the company I work for will be able to do a rollout of Vista any time soon. When we buy hardware for our users, we don't buy top of the line items. As everyone else we are looking to minimize cost, and lots of our desktop computers run on Celeron D CPUs with mainboard integrated graphics and a small amount of RAM. After all, the sole purpose of these machines is to enable our users to do their job. Most of the time that consists of running Office, Lotus Notes and various other applications that doesn't put that much of a strain on the local CPU. We are looking for manageability, stability and and basically "getting the job done" features. Vista doesn't give us much in that department, nor does the hardware requirements it sports.

If it was up to me, Microsoft would go the same route with desktop OS' as they are doing with Windows Server 2008. They should provide a full "bells and whistles" version for the Home market and a stripped down low hardware requirement version for the enterprise. Base them on the same kernel and stability/security model, but remove all non-essential features and let the enterprises build their own versions based on their particular needs. I am not suggesting the current model of Home, Business and Ultimate in various incarnations, but rather a much more modular setup that provides a very basic set of OS functionality that can be modified to include other modules depending on need.

I would love to be able to roll out a Vista version that was customized to actually do what I need, in a corporate environment but the versions available to be at this moment in time will not let me be able to do that. Given that the trend seems to be going towards a virtualization of the desktop in corporate environments, I think Microsoft needs to take a long hard look at the monolithic model they currently use.  Perhaps they are even thinking like this already, by implementing virtualization in the core of Server 2008, thus enabling running former kernel level services in their own virtualized layer that could be dynamically started as needed. I don't know what the future of desktop operating system holds, but I do think that the time for monolithic releases has passed. It's time to start rethinking the desktop operating system and how we install, maintain and customize it. Especially in an enterprise environment.

So, to summarize this whole post in two simple statements;

•  Vista at Home: Excellent if you have the hardware.
•  Vista in the Enterprise: Not there yet, nor will it be for a very long time.

MWM Consulting has released v1.1 of their Gallery Gadget, for use in the Microsoft Vista Sidebar. The Gadget allows you to have a live Gallery 2 powered slideshow in your Vista sidebar.

Check out the download page for more details, and visit the forum topic to provide feedback.

What on earth does this mean?!