Using server 2003 as a workstation?

[blabMOXkd]

<---- Is part of the "Using 2k3 as a workstation" club and am completely enjoying it... my drivers work nicely... but, i'm not able to get certain games to work.. which isn't at all important to me anymore.

I run 2k3 enterprise on my server at home, and enterprise on my laptop as a workstation. in both cases, i've got everything the way i want it... and on the laptop, besides the login and the shutdown screen saying it's 2k3, i don't think someone could identify it as 2k3 by the looks.

EDIT: removed the image, and replaced with zip... is a 56k unfriendly pic :(

desktop.zip

[null_]

Im running Windows Server 2003, I run some intranet websites using IIS, and have some stuff set up for my network, I also use a Power User account for day to day use and it works perfectly for me.

[ericnmu]

Why are most people so stuck on where the license came from? It's completely irrelevent to the problem in any way.

[blabMOXkd]

Inferiority complex maybe? j/k :shifty:

I'd bet that some are aquired from the free trial version that people could download from the MS eval site, or by attending any of the server2003 launch events, or even some of the TS2 events that MS has. I got 3 evals and a volume license. the evals came from 1x 2k3 launch and 2x from TS2 conferences. the volume license came from a co-worker friend that's higher up than me.. When I leave the CO, the volume license no longer applies to me...

[John Veteran]

Inferiority complex maybe? j/k :shifty:

I'd bet that some are aquired from the free trial version that people could download from the MS eval site, or by attending any of the server2003 launch events, or even some of the TS2 events that MS has. I got 3 evals and a volume license. the evals came from 1x 2k3 launch and 2x from TS2 conferences. the volume license came from a co-worker friend that's higher up than me.. When I leave the CO, the volume license no longer applies to me...

I think you forget that the average age of the majority of Neowin members is somewhere between 13 and 18... I doubt any of them have ~$1500 or more to pay to visit any Microsoft conferences...

That leaves trials or warez. Trials last 6 months. Server 2003 came out a year ago, which means they either installed the trial again after the 6 months (illegal, breaks the EULA for the trial) or they pirated it... Take a guess as to what's the most likely method of acquiring Server 2003...

[blabMOXkd]

hehe.. i'm 20 :woot:

I might have confused the event... TechNet and TS2 events are free to general public.. but MSDN events are for MSDN subscribers only... the msdn subsription is around 400-500 for the updates and only keeps rising in price from there.... the school i worked for had the full blown MSDN subs so i was like.. sweet.

i've never paid for a conference yet.. and i don't plan to... untill i can secure a 70k+ job for the next 2-3 years.

i tried a pirated version one time :whistle: .... didn't work to my liking :angry: ... the CD key worked.. but i couldn't update.. so i scraped the iso and the cd i made... and figured i'd try getting a legal copy from work, while i'm still there :laugh:

[Chris123NT]

I know a lot of people who use 2k3 as a workstation. But those people also have multiple servers on a network and want the extreme power that 2k3 offers right on their desk. When it comes to network management (and if your a lazy admin like me) then having 2k3 right on your desk is the perfect solution. Control over the WHOLE domain without having to walk into the server room :).

2k3 can be used as a workstation, but only by people who plan to use its features and know what they're doing.

And before all of you start telling me my copy is warez i'm gonna go stare at my legit VLK :)

[ericnmu]

I think you forget that the average age of the majority of Neowin members is somewhere between 13 and 18... I doubt any of them have ~$1500 or more to pay to visit any Microsoft conferences...

That leaves trials or warez. Trials last 6 months. Server 2003 came out a year ago, which means they either installed the trial again after the 6 months (illegal, breaks the EULA for the trial) or they pirated it... Take a guess as to what's the most likely method of acquiring Server 2003...

its not fair to assume how people attained their license and then flame them based on your assumption.

:no:

/me thinks back to when i had a question regarding norton corp. you flamed me for having warez corp on my laptop blah blah. turns out my university has a bulk license and it is on the image. clean as a whistle. :p

[PF Prophet]

dont mind gameguy hes like that ;)

[DOCa Cola]

lol, that thread is still floating around ;)

I for myself also use WinS2003 as a workstation just because i wanted to try something new. In my opinion it starts faster, doesn't have all the crappy things activated (system restore is gone, no welcome screen) that were in winxp and also gives me more options to even more change the way windows works. I don't recommend anyone using it as a workstation though simply because...i don't know.

DOCa Cola

Edited February 18, 2004 by DOCa Cola

[+BudMan MVC]

Control over the WHOLE domain without having to walk into the server room :).

Um - thats the purpose of the admin pak -- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en

There are hundreds of ways to admin a domain from your desk, you sure do not need to be running server for this.

Be it with admin tools as above, terminal sessions, remote control kvm's or software (vnc, radmin, etc) - really only reason to go to the server room would be to put a CD into something, change a tape, change out some hardware, etc.. Or to cool off on a hot day ;)

Running server for the sake of getting the tools to admin the domain, why not just install the admin pack on your xp workstation?

[KTamas]

LOL i just switched from XPSP1 to Win2K3 few days ago. I've installed same programs to Win2K3, and Win2K3 is 20-30 percent faster than XPSP1...and All of my programs and games works well w/o any problems and very fast on Win2K3! Soz no more XP! Win2K3 yay! Btw, i wanna say a big LOL to logitech who says that MouseWare not working on Win2K3...just use windows xp compatibility for setup program and voil?...Mouseware worx on Win2k3...Logitech MX 500 rulez:))

(Btw, my computer is P3-600/256mb of ram)

[Kasandoro]

I've been watching this thread for quite some time now, and I feel that it boils down to one fact:

I bought the standard edition. I paid for it. I own my computer. If I want to use it as a workstation, then I should be able to without having to listen to people bash me for MY decision to use MY copy on MY computer.

Sheesh. What a worthless argument.

--Kas

[PF Prophet]

gameguy u can still get trial disks to this day so SOME people may be using trial for the first time

oh and as a link i posted MONTHS ago showed u can get 2k3 for well under the $1500 stated as the ONLY price full licenced versions infact

http://www.dljsystem.com/detailsSoft.asp?productID=1516

not the ssame link as b4 becouse i didnt save the links for such things

http://www.softwareprovisions.com/Air/?p=uvl&id=547&incid=38

http://www.dljsystem.com/detailsSoft.asp?productID=1743

[Statikk]

I've been watching this thread for quite some time now, and I feel that it boils down to one fact:

I bought the standard edition. I paid for it. I own my computer. If I want to use it as a workstation, then I should be able to without having to listen to people bash me for MY decision to use MY copy on MY computer.

Sheesh. What a worthless argument.

--Kas

We aren't arguing saying it can't be done, or even that you shouldn't do it. We're just tired of everyone and their grandma's sister installing it (USUALLY warez copy), being totally lost because they have no clue how to use a server OS, and then asking 9 million and 1 questions before A) Making simple attempts to research and solve the problem themselves B) Realizing that Game XYZ, Driver XYZ, and Program XYZ were not meant to run on a server OS.

[+BudMan MVC]

Win2K3 is 20-30 percent faster than XPSP1

Dude - if your going to make up numbers, atleast use some that you do not have to be smoking crack to believe. 20 to 30% yeah OK!! There is NOTHING in the kernel that would allow for 20-30% increase in anything to do with workstation peformance - NOTHING! Really the only thing that might account for any type of noticable increase in workstation type performance - was your xp was hosed in the first place

Lets take a look at some "workstation" use type performance - and your 30% increase.

So your saying if I install w2k3 as my workstation OS;

Word will open in what .35 seconds vs the .5 second now? I am not even sure if it takes a half second, when I click go - I have to be saying the word 1 to finish it before word is open. Sure can not even get started on thousand, so for sure its only about half a second --> But sweet, now it will open like 20 or 30% faster than that!!

So neowin will will open 30% faster than it does now?? It takes about 2 seconds to open - so if I install w2k3, I can expect it to open in about 1.4 seconds? that would be a 30% increase. Sweet!!!!

Will I have to slow down the songs in media player or winamp? I don't wont them playing 30% faster! They will sound funny!

So when I download the latest demo - it will download 20 to 30% faster? So it takes about 30 minutes to download a CD now, so what only about 21 minutes?? You know who should really jump on this - dialup users, they could really use the increase!!! ;)

So when I rip a cd to mp3 or wma or oog, whatever - it will rip it 20-30% faster?? Let see I just copied over a 5:31 song from CD to wma in about 22 seconds - so your saying this will only take around 15.4 seconds - SWEET!!!! Every second counts you know!!

So my machine will boot 20 to 30% faster? So let see - takes about say 23 seconds to boot now. So if running w2k3 it will boot in what 16.1 seconds? Sad thing is, I leave my machine on 24/7/365 unless there is a power outage or installing a patch or hardware, etc.. So I will not see that added boost in boot up time, maybe I can just start rebooting my machine every so often - so I can enjoy the benefit of the 20-30% faster bootup time. You did say w2k3 peforms 20 to 30 % faster - so this would include bootup time - right??

So when I burn a CD in 2 minutes - if running w2k3 it will only take 1.4 minutes??

So I can do 90 frames a second now in Unreal - so if running w2k3 I can get 90 + 30% = 117 frames per second! SWEET!!! I have read that anything above say 72 fps is just gravy. But man can't wait to get the 20-30% increase your talking about!!

Man I can see why everyone is jumping on this - man $4k retail, so word can open .15 seconds faster, how can you NOT do that?? No wonder everyone wants it!! Now it seems everyone wants ent vs the stnd version - stnd is like have the price of ent, if I get the stnd -- will I only get half the performance increase, since it's only have the price?? ;) But a 10 to 15% would still be good - cuz man I really need WORD to open in .43 seconds vs .5 seconds ;)

----

I see these claims all the time - but has anyone posted a link to benchmarks?? Even if a 30% faster than xp - faster in WHAT?? I mean really - word opens before I have my finger off the mouse button, same goes for ppt and outlook, etc.. Exactly were are you people coming up with its faster as a workstation than XP. To be honest what type of increase in workstation performance would be worth the cost of any version of w2k3??

[KTamas]

OK, budman....faster=means higher performance, and yes, Outlook loads up faster, photoshop makes effect faster, etc... And i have Pentium 3 @ 600MHz (good old computer) w/256MB RAM. If u have a processor over 1,5 GHz then u dont need this per4mance...BUT its important to me, cause i have an old computer...

[ForkliftDude]

aslong noone of you ever plans to become a system administrator, feel free to continue to discuss bs.

[Frank]

aslong noone of you ever plans to become a system administrator, feel free to continue to discuss bs.

and... what do you mean by this?

[ForkliftDude]

if that isn't obvious to you, please count yourself into that group.

[null_]

*Points to his signature and leaves the thread*

[xplatinum]

,Dec 24 2003, 16:09] you are saying that is not intented as a workstation? neither linux and is widely used as one, period.

Most Linux distros ARE meant to be used as a workstation. Take Linux Mandrake for exemple.

[Frank]

if that isn't obvious to you, please count yourself into that group.

The funny thing is.... I already am one :rolleyes:

[Joel]

We aren't arguing saying it can't be done, or even that you shouldn't do it. We're just tired of everyone and their grandma's sister installing it (USUALLY warez copy), being totally lost because they have no clue how to use a server OS, and then asking 9 million and 1 questions before A) Making simple attempts to research and solve the problem themselves B) Realizing that Game XYZ, Driver XYZ, and Program XYZ were not meant to run on a server OS.

(Y)

[KTamas]

OK, "Member of Win2k3 issnt a workstation alliance" members can be happy now, i found a mistake in Win2K3. I've tryed to convert...um....Videos, but....DVDx crashed....AutoGK [email protected] me if somebody knows a working.....Video converter....for Win2K3?