OT? Running Windows Server Instead Of XP Pro?

[(PeteCresswell)]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?


We get visitors from afar periodically, and telling The Powers
That Be that this PC can also server as a temporary work station
for visitors may increase our chances of getting it.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?


We get visitors from afar periodically, and telling The Powers
That Be that this PC can also server as a temporary work station
for visitors may increase our chances of getting it.

Yes, it can. The newsgroup "microsoft.public.windows.server.general"
would actually be a much more appropriate place to post this question.

 

[Robert Moir]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?


We get visitors from afar periodically, and telling The Powers
That Be that this PC can also server as a temporary work station
for visitors may increase our chances of getting it.

Yes it can. But whether or not it should is another thing. I'd really
question the worth of allowing visitors on to a server, and given the low
price of hardware these days I'd really question if you'd really save that
much in the end.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?


We get visitors from afar periodically, and telling The Powers
That Be that this PC can also server as a temporary work station
for visitors may increase our chances of getting it.

This can be done but there are some limitations.

For example, you will have a hard time finding a "free" antivirus solution
that will run on the Server OS, and the commercial ones are a bit more
expensive than commerical desktop A/V.

You probably don't want to have visitors browsing and emailing on a system
with no A/V, while in a closed dev context it may not be necessary.

You can find guides to doing the server-desktop conversion online.

HTH
-pk

 

[HeyBub]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?


We get visitors from afar periodically, and telling The Powers
That Be that this PC can also server as a temporary work station
for visitors may increase our chances of getting it.

Sure. No problems from a technical standpoint. There are issues from a
policy perspective.

Generally a server should, like a misbehaving child, be consigned to a dark
closet or forgotten corner so that critical applications will not be sullied
by some doofus replying to a Greeting Card spam.

 

[Hugo Trebl]

If we set up a box with Windows Server on it (to support some SQL
DB development efforts), can the PC double as a desktop PC?

i.e. Can we run the MS Office Suite, Outlook, and so-forth with
any users not seeing any radical diffs?

With the right settings windows 2003 can do everything XP can. You
could even run directX games.
There is a good guide here: http://win2k3.msfn.org/

Pretty much the only programms that do not work are ones where the
author has purposely put in some blocks against it running on 2003.

It is useful if you just want an occasional test server
But I would not use it as an actual production server and as a
workstation at the same time.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Hugo Trebl:

It is useful if you just want an occasional test server
But I would not use it as an actual production server and as a
workstation at the same time.

That's exactly what we're planning. Strictly for development -
with the related agenda of being able to accumulate benchmark
numbers in a more-or-less ideal environment.

i.e. If we develop an app and the response time for walking a
list/loading details on screen XYZ is sub-second and then the
response time goes to three seconds for every screen load when
things get turned over to the DB group, we would have basis
questioning that response time.