| Imagine my surprise when I installed Windows 2008 for the first time and was faced with a decision of installing the Full version or the Server Core version. My initial question was “What precisely is a Server Core version?” Microsoft had kept this product quiet and, as a beta tester, I was taken completely off guard. So I installed Server Core and found myself faced with a command prompt and nothing else. Server Core doesn’t include a Taskbar, desktop (as we know it), or a Start menu. You won’t find a plethora of GUI gizmos that can make life easier, but can also to slow your work down to a crawl. Here was an interface that reminded me of a supercharged-DOS or NetWare of days past. I just had to try it out.
Many months later, I’m still pleased by what I see and I’m sure you will be, too. Administering Windows Server 2008 Server Core shares all of the new skills I’ve learned while investigating Server Core, researching online, talking with Microsoft, and gathering the results of testing by interested individuals. Imagine having a Web server that isn’t constantly bogged down with a wealth of tasks that have nothing to do with serving content. As a file and print server, you’ll find that Server Core provides very perky response times and that it’s amazingly reliable. You get all of these perks with just a few cons that may or may not make Server Core a good choice for your organization. However, you’ll want to try it out to see. You have everything to gain and only a little experimentation time to lose. |