Windows 2008 - Wow!
7/30/2008
I've been running XP64 for several years now. XP64 has served me quite well. Recently though I decided to give Windows Server 2008 a try. I have been playing with it for a week now and all of my required applications are installed and running. What can I say about Windows 2008? WOW!
I actually have a lot to say about Windows 2008. But if I wait for time to blog all that, it might never happen. So here is my short post about Windows 2008.
Installation
A lot of attention to detail has been given to the installation. I have installed a lot of Windows in my time and most recently quite a few XP and 2003 installations. XP and 2003 were not exactly bad installations, but there were a lot of small annoyances. You would enter information, it would go off and be busy for a while, ask you for more info, and repeat. I believe installations should only ask you for input two times - at the beginning and the end and do all busy work, especially long running busy work in the middle.
Windows 2008 shares nearly the same installation with Vista. The installation comes pretty close to my ideal and many dialogs have been changed to be less prone to mistakes or confusion by new users. Small details, but attention to such details makes a big difference.
In the end, because I was experimenting with hard driver configurations, partition layouts, and Bitlocker I ended up installing Windows 2008 at least 6 times. But that was not any fault of Windows, but simply experimentation on my part. But the point I want to make is that I did not just install it once, but at least half a dozen times so I had a lot of time to review the installation process.
Speed
Finally Intel fixed their buggy RAID drivers for the ICH chipset. These fixed drivers were not part of the original Vista release, but are in Vista SP1 and Windows 2008. But before I discovered this, I made and tested several installations of Windows 2008. RAID 0 has made my system run much faster because my usage is usually bound by the hard disk. However, even without RAID 0, Windows 2008 is much faster than XP64. Windows 2008 also "sticks up" a lot less. By "sticks up", I do not mean crashing or locking up, but XP often would allow one application to monopolize the hard disk or CPU and cause the user interface to be unresponsive for a bit. Maybe the difference is simply that 2008 is a server operating system instead of a desktop operating system, but whatever the reason it is very noticeable.
I also wanted to try 2008 on my 1.2 GHz tablet with a ULV processor. It also has a 1.8" hard drive, the type that are in MP3 players. So it is by server standards a really low end machine, although at least it has 1 GB of RAM. 2008 ran just fine and in fact ran faster than XP on the same machine. 2008 did recognize the pen, but 2008 does not include the handwriting recognition components. Inker even installed and ran, but I was limited to the on screen keyboard. Unless I can find a way to hack the recognition components into 2008, I won't be keeping 2008 on my tablet, but I was quite amazed that it not only ran so well on such low specifications, but ran faster than XP in such circumstances.
Ease of Use
I use 2003 on a daily basis on some servers that I manage. 2003 is not hard to use, but there are certainly some tasks that are a bit cumbersome or require too many actions to complete. 2008 again pays attention to details, and the overall experience is that 2008 is just plain easier to use and feels more comfortable.
Roles and Features
Roles are thinks like Web server, and Hyper-V. Features are smaller items like Internet Printing, Bitlocker, etc. In 2003 to change such system items it was not always clear or they were separate installs. There were often conflicts and multiple components required and you had to know what needed what, and what order to install items. 2008 fixes all this. And even features or roles installed separately, later end up as features and roles that you enable or disable without the need to uninstall or reinstall. Every item knows what other items are needed and 2008 takes care of all the details for you. Making such changes often still requires a reboot, but the process itself is very smooth and 2008 tells you what it is doing every step of the way, including any steps taken during shut down, pre-boot, and post reboot.
Drivers
A major problem in running a server operating system on the desktop was drivers. Many vendors simply did not bother to make drivers for hardware typically found in a desktop. But 2008 and Vista use the same drivers. So even if you do not see a 2008 driver listed, simply install the Vista driver. A simple thing, but it almost makes me break into tears of joy after suffering so many problems in the past with drivers.
Workstation
2008 is a server operating system. In the past meant that you had to give up many of the desktop niceties. Not so with 2008. Nearly all the features of Vista, including Aero, sideshow, and more can be installed on 2008. After all, they share the same kernel and drivers. There are a few features that are not currently available such as full pen support on tablets.
There is a website dedicated to turning 2008 into the ultimate desktop with forums, and a fantastic utility which automates many of the changes for you. You can even choose which ones to enable, and which ones to leave disabled. For example, 2008 does not enable wireless support by default. Its very easy to turn on though by just starting the service.
Convert your Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation
One caveat, the tool forgot to include a small change to the firewall most users will want. But you can make the change yourself quickly.
Hyper-V
I've been a long time VMWare user. In fact I have used every version of VMWare workstation since 1.0. I'm very excited about Hyper-V though, and my plan was to convert over to Hyper-V to gain more performance.
This is the one tasks I have not been successful with though. Since experimenting with Hyper-V, I have gone back to VMWare 6 Workstation because of the following reasons:
- USB support - I've made this point before, Microsoft Virtualization products have completely ignored the need for USB. Yes, even on the server it is often needed for dongles.
- Conversion - Converting VMWare images to Hyper-V is not easy. First you have to convert the vmdk files to vhd files. That part is easy. But most of my VMWare images were using SCSI disk emulation, and they need to be converted to IDE. This is not an easy task. Finally, you have to remove VMWare tools before you get to Hyper-V. You can actually boot with VMWare tools installed in Hyper-V, but the VMWare tools refuse to uninstall while running in Hyper-V. Unfortunately it not just an issue with VMWare as I tried with a VPC image as well, and Microsoft's own VPC tools refused to uninstall while running in VMWare. System Center promises to help with the conversions, but I have not had a chance to put it through its paces yet.
- Graphics - Hyper-V is for server virtualization, so it only supports a video card with 4 MB of memory. This is adequate in most cases. However VMWare 6.5 is promising DirectX compatibility and performances inside of virtual machines, and this is very tempting.
I will keep trying with Hyper-V, but because of understandable conflicts you cannot install both Hyper-V and VMWare Workstation at the same time so the need to move back and forth makes it a lot more tedious.
Bitlocker
I have to admit. I had expectations of being disappointed by Bitlocker. But in fact, I am quite pleased with Bitlocker. Enough so that I will make a separate blog entry about it in the future. The only two issues I had with Bitlocker are:
- Configuration - Bitlocker is way too difficult to configure except in the standard non configurable way provided by the Bitlocker preparation tool. For most users the tool is sufficient however.
- Confusing - Several Bitlocker documentation items and dialogs are very misleading, or worse in some cases incorrect.
- Lack of Passphrase Option - Bitlocker is secure. I am using with an external USB stick, but I wish Bitlocker had an option to specify a custom passphrase that could be prompted for during the pre-boot sequence. Currently you have to use TPM and/or USB stick. You can use Bitlocker without TPM by the way, although the Bitlocker dialogs tell you otherwise.
Problems?
I am glad to report that I encountered very few problems with Windows 2008.
During the initial stages of install, the screen stays with a grey background for several minutes, two times. It happens before and after the regions and language selection screen. This happens both on 2008 and Vista with SP1, but only happens on my desktop, and not my tablet. I am not sure why it does it, but it does it every time and it gives no indication that it is doing anything. There is not disk activity, and not DVD activity. It appears as though it is hung, but I just had to wait a few minutes.
The only major frustration I encoutered was with activation, but that is becuase I am using a version from MSDN. If you are installing 2008 from MSDN or Technet, be sure to read my post about 2008 activation and save yourself a lot of trouble.
Cost
Several readers have pointed out that 2008 is expensive. 2008 is a server operating system, so yes it costs about $800 for the standard edition. However if you are a developer and using it for development, 2008 is available on MSDN. If you use the same machine for personal use, just dual boot back to XP or Vista to play games, watch videos, or whatever. Vista or XP has better game compatibility anyways.
<< Previous Entry Next Entry >>
Use my contact form to contact me directly.
