Editor's Blog | Eric Knorr » TAG: Windows Vista

March 17, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Vista in eclipse

TAGS: Windows Vista

I'm happy to report that, as of last week, InfoWorld's Save Windows XP petition passed the 100,000 mark. This campaign has been a wild ride.

Thousands of users not only signed the petition but also commented about their own reasons for wanting XP to survive, about their personal experiences with Vista, and so on. A much smaller number accused us of garden-variety Microsoft bashing or standing in the way of progress.

Together these comments make fascinating reading, which is why InfoWorld Executive Editor Galen Gruman -- who conceived of the Save XP campaign -- decided to offer his personal analysis of all that reader feedback. As Galen notes, the most persuasive argument from readers is that it's all about control. After June 30, new PCs must run Vista, so like it or not, businesses must soon support both operating systems or make a forced march to Vista all at once.

Either way, businesses must invest time and money in a new OS that most believe offers little added benefit and a whole lot of hassle.

In a world where so many other, worthier IT projects can't seem to obtain funding, curtailing choice with a compulsory upgrade incurs real pain. The recent release of internal Microsoft e-mails predicting compatibility problems prior to Vita's launch adds insult to injury.

So what about just sticking with XP and waiting for Windows 7? That's a real possibility even for enterprises that need to buy PCs after the deadline, thanks to certain licensing loopholes. And after all, Microsoft has said it will support XP until 2014.

InfoWorld's Enterprise Desktop blogger, Randy Kennedy, lends credence to the idea of keeping XP running with this week's Deathmatch: Windows Vista versus XP. The genesis of this article was Randy's suite of comparative performance tests, which deliver some mighty interesting results. But performance isn’t the only factor enterprises will weigh when considering a leap from XP to Vista, so Randy provides a complete, point-by-point comparison of the dueling OSes on security, manageability, usability, reliability, and other key criteria.

Randy also takes us a step further into an alternative he calls the "Weird, wild, wonderful Windows 'Workstation' 2008." Faithful readers of Randy's blog will note that, picking up on an idea introduced by a Microsoft engineer, he has been exploring the use of Windows Server 2008 as a workstation platform -- one that kicks Vista's butt in performance. Funny, we had Server 2008 pegged as the best Windows Server product Microsoft has ever released. But we didn’t imagine it might be Redmond’s best client OS, too.

Posted by Eric Knorr on March 17, 2008 03:00 AM

February 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)

A long, long look at Windows Server 2008

TAGS: Windows Vista

The beast known as Longhorn began its slow migration from concept to reality in 2003. Back then, the whispered details of a new Windows file system, protocol stack, and presentation layer bred endless speculation and excitement. As the years wore on, the new file system fell away, the buzz died, and the client became a brand -- Vista -- while the server lumbered on with the Longhorn name.

This week, Longhorn -- that is, Windows Server 2008 -- gets its final push out of the Microsoft corral. With every feature already public, why make a big deal about Longhorn's official launch?

Because, says InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager, "You really have to get your hands on the shipping version to appreciate it." You who have followed Tom's somewhat tepid Longhorn coverage may be shocked to discover that his in-depth review of Windows Server 2008 holds the new OS in high esteem.

What's so great about Longhorn? Tom notes the strength of the security features, especially the ease with which administrators can lock down clients on and off the network. Next in line are the improved terminal services. But the real surprise, he says, is in the scalability of Windows Server 2008.

"There's never been a smaller Windows Server," says Tom. The new OS can actually be scaled down to 512MB of RAM and a mere 1GB of disk space, which hits Linux where it lives. In conjunction with Microsoft's new Hyper-V virtualization technology, administrators can run unlimited instances of the OS on a single server with a single license.

So how will all this lovely new Longhorn stuff affect IT? InfoWorld contributing editor and Database Underground blogger Sean McCown shows how you can take advantage of such additions as NTFS enhancements, restartable Active Directory Domain Services, failover clustering, and more -- and points out a few gotchas along the way. Read Sean's story along with Tom's review and get a full plate of Longhorn.

If Microsoft is lucky, positive coverage of Windows Server 2008 may take some of the sting out of last week's Vista SP1 debacle. (Recalling a Service Pack for Microsoft's most embattled desktop OS ever? Can you imagine the embarrassment, the bellowing, the chair-throwing?) Another worthwhile distraction: Microsoft's announcement last week that it would play nice with Linux and, more importantly, release 30,000 pages of documentation on the APIs and protocols for its flagship server and desktop products.

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Posted by Eric Knorr on February 25, 2008 12:03 AM