SMS -vs- GPO

[cmiller]

We are running SMS 2.0 SP5 with Active Directory. Our
network has about 200 workstations, and I have a few
questions regarding software publishing:

When should we use SMS to publish software to our
workstations, and when should we be using a GPO?

What are the main differences between using SMS and using
a GPO to publish software?

What are the pros and cons of using each to publish
software?

I can not find any resources on the web explaining the
differences between the 2 in regards to publishing
software to workstations on a domain -- any help would be
very appreciated.

 

[Luci Sandor]

Comparison of Windows 2000 Group Policy and SMS 2.0

Feature Area Windows 2000
Group Policy vs. SMS 2.0
Application deployment
both yes
User data/settings management
both yes(SMS only via scripts)
OS upgrade/OS update deployment
both yes
Supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP clients both
yes
Supports Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0 clients only SMS 2.0

and more on
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/sms/plan/dsumgmt.asp