Windows 2003 Workstation

You might be saying no such thing exists, but I beg to differ. I’ve dumped XP as a Windows platform. I now use it only when something specifically requires it (which isn’t often).

I prefer to use Windows Server 2003 as a workstation instead. Why? Mostly because of raw socket limitations. I hate the fact that security software is hit or miss on XP. I simply lack the time to worry about whether or not XP will gimp up a given security tool.

So I’ve just built my latest Windows VMware image (for Outlook, Word and Visio) using Server 2003. Office 2007, by the way, is awesome. I very much like the ribbon concept, as well as the other more subtle improvements. And Office 2007 runs great on Server 2003, so this is a good thing.

It’s become very clear to me that XP is an OS designed for the masses. It’s edges have been rounded so that people don’t cut themselves, which is unfortunate since I was actually using them to get work done. Luckily for me there’s another Microsoft platform that runs Office, and until the next version of server comes out this is what I’ll be running as my Windows “desktop”.