For those that follow the techy ways, you’ve probably heard that Windows Server 2008 (aka Longhorn) was released to manufacturers. This also means it hit MSDN and in my grubby paws a few hours later. I find the best way to learn an OS is to install it on the laptop I use every day. So that is just what I’ve done. I’ve got few initial impressions of the OS, and I’ll probably have a few others posts about it down the line. Note: This is not the first time I’ve used 2k8 — I used one of the previous beta’s.

1 — It takes up 12 GB of hard drive space on install, but only 430 MB of RAM. This is actually something I’m pleased about (the amount of RAM usage) since Vista started at 800+ MB of RAM usage on install.

2 — Basically nothing is installed by default with the Server — and I like it. No crap to remove.

3 — Synergy DOES NOT work when installed as a service under 2008 (as a client). The reason for this is that (the best I can tell) 2008 allows services to interact with their own virtual desktop, instead of your desktop. So when you start the client service on 2008 — the synergy control falls into that virtual desktop you can’t see.

4 — World Of Warcraft does run properly under Windows 2008. The only minor issue is a pop complaining about being unable to load “gameux.dll” — but the game still runs.