Joel Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 A server is a computer that provides a service. If someone wants to play games on it, has paid for it, and can get their games working on it, great. If I sold a server OS without gamers being the intended audience and they were buying it up because it gave them +5 fps in their favorite game, I'd be all for it.All you smartass "sysadmins" need to get off your high horses and think outside the boxes you work in. Your situation isn't the only situation out there. A server is a computer that serves things. Printer jobs, IP addresses, DNS resolution, Terminal Services, files, applications, WINS, Active Directory if applicable, stuff like that. They already sell an OS for gamers, it's called XP. I don't live in a box with my server. What I do is use it for only a fraction of its possible function, because while a lot is possible in theory, in application it's another story. Games may be more than theory, but if you have to fight with a system and complain that you don't know how or why some setting is like that, then maybe it's not for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taliseian Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 If someone who has a copy of Server 2k3 wants to use it for gaming or as a workstation or whatever, more power to them. Why is it that when people see something they don't agree with, that they can't just sit back and say, "Hmm...I wonder what he had for breakfast." :laugh: T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmark327 Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 If someone who has a copy of Server 2k3 wants to use it for gaming or as a workstation or whatever, more power to them.Why is it that when people see something they don't agree with, that they can't just sit back and say, "Hmm...I wonder what he had for breakfast." :laugh: T If you'd read you'd see the problem is people who don't know what they're doing and then they come and complain that their programs don't work on 2k3 server, when there's no reason for them to be using it in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougkinzinger Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 Right. And, we're members of the "Windows Server 2003 isn't a workstation" alliance. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWante Posted November 6, 2003 Share Posted November 6, 2003 I am quite happy I swithched from XP to Server2k3... Why?? Because now my computer stops crashing... Since my install it hasn't crashed once. I have used WS2k3 on my server for over half a year without a single crash so there must be something good with it... And after following every instruction I am now using it as a Workstation and Gaming computer and have NO trouble... Well, that was a small lie... My old scanner doesn't work any more. Otherwise everything works... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 If you'd read you'd see the problem is people who don't know what they're doing and then they come and complain that their programs don't work on 2k3 server, when there's no reason for them to be using it in the first place. so make a sub-forum for "Win2003 Workstation" since there's obviously a big enough demand for it. its not that hard to do. i mean, this is what we do at neowin, right? people post problems, others reply. if the question itself aggravates you enough to enter a 'gaming' thread and take time out of your busy day to respond "Win2003 is not for gamers, you n00b!", then you need to just chill and take some anger management classes in your spare time. :no: so either leave all gaming threads alone and dont rock the boat, or give us "Windows 2003 is da Gamerz Bomb!" advocates our own place to discuss our problems we encounter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PF Prophet Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 i tryed to put up a vote for this but nobody listened i may do it agin really just put up a 2k3 workstation forum :) then ppl that are rude and come there only to bitch at those that use it as a workstation can be sent home like the bad little trolls they are :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmark327 Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 If you can voice the opinion that "it's da bomb" we can voice the opinion "it's retarded" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted November 11, 2003 Share Posted November 11, 2003 If you can voice the opinion that "it's da bomb" we can voice the opinion "it's retarded" you;'re missing the whole friggin' point, man. we dont go an enter thread where you're discussing IIS or VPN or server-related tech stuff, and say "quit using it for server purposes! just relax and play some games instead!" so we'd at least appreciate if you didnt enter game-related win2003 threads and gives us your $0.00001 worth of useless trollers' opinion. bottom line is, there's a big group of us that do use windows 2003 server for GAMES and normal application day-to-day use only, so quit your trolling, and until theres a sub-forum for it, please refrain from entering any server 2003 thread that has the word "Game" in it. no one cares about your opinion in these particular threads, they certainly wont run and delete win2003 just because 'darkman' says so, so repeating it a thousand times til you're blue in the face is kinda fruitless, dontcha think? bottom line, flamin' every person that tries to ask a valid win2003 for gaming question is killing this otherwise great board. so please show some respect and use some restrain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 theres nothing wrong with running windows 2003 as a workstation, i can understand peoples opinions. yes its a challenge but i have a few points to make about it. Say these OS's are cars. if you want to go fast you buy a sports car, if you want to be practical you buy a minivan. yes is quite possible to go fast in a minivan but is it as safe/stable/agile as the sports car? whats getting me is im seeing some complete noobs trying to install it obviously just looking for the latest numbers on their desktop regardless of whether they can configure it or not. as a server noob i installed win2k server (120day evaluation from microsoft) and played around with it. i only did it to work out a server OS and get an active directory running. WindowsXP is superior for gaming if you know what services to stop and how to slim it down as has been mentioned. anyways... you guys are, as always, free to do as you please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PF Prophet Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 Tyler Durden wheres the proof that shows its better got any "numbers" to proove it thats what people keep asking win2k3 users for "numbers" that proove its faster or better or more stable ??? get off it to get xp to the point there 2k3 is out of the box u gotta do one hell of alot of work 30 or so of tweaking to get it down to the point whre its like 2k3 is out of the box yes u gotta enable a few things in 2k3 thats easy took me al of 5 min to get it readdy to game last time i set it up that includes installing drivers and enabling dx and such try and tweak xp in 5 min and u get 1/6 of the job done yes if u dissabled a few more things i could get even more perf and power like dissabling server related services but even with then running its still quicker then xp on my systems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmark327 Posted November 15, 2003 Share Posted November 15, 2003 you;'re missing the whole friggin' point, man. we dont go an enter thread where you're discussing IIS or VPN or server-related tech stuff, and say "quit using it for server purposes! just relax and play some games instead!" so we'd at least appreciate if you didnt enter game-related win2003 threads and gives us your $0.00001 worth of useless trollers' opinion. bottom line is, there's a big group of us that do use windows 2003 server for GAMES and normal application day-to-day use only, so quit your trolling, and until theres a sub-forum for it, please refrain from entering any server 2003 thread that has the word "Game" in it. no one cares about your opinion in these particular threads, they certainly wont run and delete win2003 just because 'darkman' says so, so repeating it a thousand times til you're blue in the face is kinda fruitless, dontcha think?bottom line, flamin' every person that tries to ask a valid win2003 for gaming question is killing this otherwise great board. so please show some respect and use some restrain. You are also missing my point. I never said you shouldn't use it for a workstation, if you'd read you'd see that. My beef is with people who barely know how to use XP that go and use 2003 and then have no clue WTH they're doing. Especially now that there's automated utilities that set all this stuff up for would be server users, now they don't even understand what's being changed and why. Sure, I played around with 2003 as a workstation, because I actually used its server functions. Back then it was all manual configuring, but that's what it's all about. Learning the nuances of the server, and how it's different, and if something doesn't work, OK, you go around and you look things up and look into settings, and you realize..."OH, such-and-such is not enabled." Running an automated thing that you've no idea what it's doing doesn't do what's important, which is to give you the heuristics to figure out how to fix things yourself. In the end, I went back because a few things refused to work, but it was fun playing around with it. It was no faster than a trimmed XP config though; if anything it was slower because booting up took a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 It was no faster than a trimmed XP config though; if anything it was slower because booting up took a while. i think this is our impasse. :rolleyes: My personal observation (no lab tests performed; i have a life) has been significantly faster boot up speeds in 2K3 compared to XP, and 'somewhat' faster applications speeds. on the other hand, i noticed worse response 'feel' in my USB steering wheel 'n' pedals, and reproducible lock ups with my USB digital camera that didnt occur in XP. let's just say "Results May Vary" and "Use at Own Risk" and leave it at that. :sleep: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmark327 Posted November 17, 2003 Share Posted November 17, 2003 I can agree on that, and I think you can agree that 2003 is not for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joswin Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 Actually if you are using an A64/Opeteron are you not limited to using Windows Server 2003 64bit edition to get any kind of full support for your CPU anyway?... Windows XP 64bit edition is still in BETA so the only 'Gold' OS you can use with 64bit support is 2k3 AFAIK. Kinda sucks really. :unsure: Back to the main subject though I can vouch for Win2k3 as a workstation, it does genuinly feel faster than XP - Even when XP is tweaked up. However i really wouldnt recommend it for MAIN OS use because in the end no matter how good Win2k3 might be as a workstation your still stuffed because your going to be on your own for everything. Forums,.. you all know the warm welcome people get for asking about win2k3 and 'aternative' use. So your going to have to fight to get help lol. Also you wont find ANY support for games/multimedia software so if you do buy a game/app (older or otherwise) and it does not function under 2003 for whatever reason, its tuff. Then u have to get 'server' versions of popular AV software and Disk Utilities. You also are out in the cold for driver support - the drivers might work but you will never get anything WHQL and might get problems with certain driver features (SmartGart wont work for me under 2k3 for instance). It is good for a play though. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PF Prophet Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 acctuly smartgart works fine for me under2k3 and for vid and most drivers 2k3 was desighed to use the same drivers as xp hence whql certifyed drivers like the ati catlest drivers work just fine did discover u cant run ur system with large system cache with ati cards or for some reasion u dont hold res on reboot :/ oh and for an av thats easy no need for a 300$ av just get f-prot it works GRATE and will run under any version of windows no compat issues no install tricks just install and update and ur set u can secdule scans upsates and such its quite a good av the real time protection dosnt load ur system down at all works grate http://www.f-prot.com give the trial ver a shot u can update it using the manual update method(no online update) its easy just download the sigs and use the built in updater in network mode tell it the dir u have the sigs saved to and it will update for u :) if u like it buy it its well worth the 30$ (was 30 when i got it) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PF Prophet Posted November 18, 2003 Share Posted November 18, 2003 oh btw robert love the ati thing verry funny hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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