Windows Server 2008: The More Cores, the Better

• By Doug Barney
• 11/10/2008

Windows Server is different. The latest rev of Windows Server 2008 uses up to 64 processors. R2, due out in the next year or two, promises to exploit as many as 256. That could handle some mighty big databases, legions of mailboxes and a fair share of SharePoint!

What is your biggest server and what does it do? Brag to me at [email protected].

Yahoo Suddenly Cuckoo for Microsoft
Microsoft and Yahoo sometimes act more like dating teenagers than real grown-up companies. First, Microsoft asked Yahoo to be its one and only with a multibillion-dollar bid. Yahoo wanted to play the field, and said, "Thanks, but no thanks." Then Microsoft, feeling snubbed, pulled back its affections -- just when Yahoo was starting to get interested.

Now that Yahoo's relationship with Google to share ad revenue fell apart, Yahoo is pining for good old Microsoft. In fact, last week, Yahoo's Jerry Yang said Microsoft would be well-served by buying his company. Alas, it appears that Steve Ballmer has moved on.

A Nearly Patch-less Tuesday
Tomorrow, many (but not enough, in my opinion) will take the day off in honor of Veterans Day. The only trouble for IT is tomorrow is also Patch Tuesday. Luckily, only two patches are expected tomorrow. And only one of these patches, to fix a remote code execution in Office and Windows, is deemed critical.

Are you taking off Veterans Day, and if so, why? Your opinions and beliefs welcome at [email protected].

Opening OpenOffice.org 3
I've been corresponding with a handful of Redmond Report readers about OpenOffice.org 3. I'm doing an article about this software and would love to talk to as many users as possible. Shoot me a note at [email protected] and I'll shoot you back a bunch of detailed questions. Don't be shy now!

Mailbag: Windows 7 vs. XP vs. Vista
Based on early demos, Windows 7 already looks much-improved compared to Vista. Doug asked readers how they think the next OS will stack up to its predecessors:

Maybe Microsoft will get it right with Windows 7. I've said all along that if Microsoft had an OS which was small and responsive, it would win over many companies. If the price is right and the performance is better than XP on our computers, we would switch to the new Vista.
-Mike

Windows 7 was good to take out some of the driver loading. But I've seen some of the videos of demos and they are ALL about appearance. Most of us don't need fancy front-ends (many people rarely have more than one app running at a time, possibly two if they are daft enough to monitor their e-mail). They need something simpler, more stable and more secure.
-Joe

I think Windows 7 is already competing more with Vista than it will with XP. However, as I think of my recently bought laptop and the pain I went through to get my apps working, I doubt that I will risk losing them by updating to Windows 7. This is in spite of the good words about Win 7. There is peripheral hardware involved and I am not confident the change would go well.
-John

Windows XP can be a more effective OS, but it still lacks in operating ability, troubleshooting techniques and user-friendliness. XP has been around for about seven years, but it still doesn't meet today's customer expectations. I think Microsoft should have developed and invested more on XP rather than any other OS.
-Brian

We have resisted using XP in our organisation for some time now since upgrading from 2000. Because of the fact that XP is very stable (ironically, not on my PC at home) and performs very well on our newer PCs, we have no reason to use Vista. We will be keeping a keen eye on Win 7 as hopefully it will fulfil the role Vista was supposed to.

I have used Vista a number of times and although the general look and feel are OK and functional, it still seems overly heavy on hardware.
-Colin

What do you think? Leave your comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].