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Windows Server 8 Is A Radical Departure From Previous Releases

Julie188 writes "While the world is distracted with the Window 8 client, Microsoft is simultaneously working on Windows Server 8. At BUILD, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation server OS under heavy secrecy to a room full of analysts and product testers. WS8 is radically different than its predecessors. There's an argument to make that it's not actually Windows. The code they saw was pre-beta and an obvious attempt to put an arrow in the heart of former-softie-turned-VMware-CEO Paul Maritz. Windows 8 Server editions are to be run in Server Core format (the GUI will be optional). PowerShell has gotten an overhaul and its command list will exceed 2,300 native commandlets in Windows Server 8. Hyper-V has also been revamped and will become massively scalable in the number of VMs supported and in the size of each VM." In related news, it appears that Java now runs on Microsoft's Azure platform.

14 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Server cold war by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft isn't saying anything about linux, however this is a direct attack against linux and unix in general

    Its real competition, not "an attack". This is a good thing.

  2. How is this a radical departure? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These just sound like incremental improvements. I'm not complaining but adding extra commandlets and features isn't a "radical departure". Plus, the GUI is optional on the current version of Windows Server.

  3. Re:Azure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, I'm not sure integration was really the problem there. The thing is, if you take one piece of shit and shove another piece of shit into it, no matter how perfectly you mix the two pieces of shit, no matter how well planned your shit mixing is, no matter how homogenous and compatible you make the two pieces of shit, all you'll ever wind up with is a larger pile of shit.

  4. Re:Server cold war by EvanED · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Personally, I think PowerShell is a lot closer to the ideal shell for today than Bash is (and I'm typing this on Linux). PS is kind of maddening to use because of some things like the tab completion differences (I've tried to give it a fair shot, but I really don't like it) and the god-awful "terminal emulator" that it runs in.

    But I strongly feel that if the Linux folks would take a step back and acknowledge that it's no longer 1970, they'd see that have programs set up to pass objects around instead of text can be hugely beneficial.

    (I'm open to some textual serialization of objects, such as JSON or similar.)

  5. Re:Server cold war by North+Korea · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So you are bashing PowerShell for allowing you to do more than what you need with it? Seriously? You don't need to use those extra features if you don't want to, but for anyone actually doing some work it's a great tool (you know, for those that actually do something else than play around with their wardrobe servers).

    I don't think you have even used PowerShell, you just want to hate on it because it's Windows-based and that "ooh Windows admins must be stupid!" line makes it even more visible. The hard cold truth is that Windows Server is used on around 50% of servers, and is usually much better choice for certain things than Linux based server, especially in corporate environments. Linux is fine for hobbyist stuff and some real work, but the real world still uses Windows Server a lot.

  6. Re:Server cold war by North+Korea · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why you blame Microsoft for it? What about we turn it around and ask why can't Linux folks just make a good PowerShell variant for Linux distros?

  7. Re:Server cold war by 0123456 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Linux is fine for hobbyist stuff and some real work, but the real world still uses Windows Server a lot.

    The real world uses Linux and other Unix variants. While Windows may be fine for print servers and other non-critical business functions, no-one in ther right mind puts a Windows server up on the Internet where it can be attacked.

  8. Re:Azure by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Visual Studio is great, but Eclipse is just as good as a platform. For some reason, every time I say this, I get modded down.

  9. Re:Azure by mario_grgic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, there is. UNIX shell and command line in my opinion is the best development environment ever made. And it's been around for a long time. The usual arguments given why this isn't so all boil down to it takes average developer too long to learn it. But nothing can ever come to the level of productivity you get when you finally do. After you do, IDEs and Visual Studio in particular start being impediments rather than productivity boosters.

    --
    As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
  10. Re:Azure by mario_grgic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Regularly work with millions of lines of code. My tools scale perfectly well, and for dozens of languages too, not just like VS which works OK for C#, but absolutely sucks for C++ or say Perl, or Eclipse which is good for Java, but sucks for C++ or Haskell for example.

    I think before you make judgement on this, perhaps you owe it to yourself to learn it first, or at least watch someone who knows what they are doing (if you can find someone).

    --
    As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
  11. Re:Azure by Rary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The same is true of any set of tools. Someone who takes the time to learn their IDE of choice will be more productive in it than in other environments. Your tools of choice consist of UNIX shell and the command line. This doesn't mean they're better tools, just that they're better tools for you, because you've learned to be productive in them.

    Software development is mostly thinking with a bit of typing thrown in. Tools can help productivity if you're familiar with them, but ultimately what interface a tool uses (ie. CLI vs GUI) is irrelevant. What's relevant in a tool is functionality. What's relevant in a developer is skill and knowledge of their chosen tools.

    --

    "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

  12. Objects are shit by mangu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linux shells still pass data as text, when passing objects would make so much more sense and give a lot more options

    Sorry, but no, passing data as objects sucks.

    Text is the one and only universal interface. Passing data as objects limits you to one system. If you have powershell objects you need a powershell environment to use them.

    When I want to get data from a website into my database text is the only format that both sides understand. Putting it into more general terms, when I want to get data from X to put it into Y text is the only format that both sides understand.

    I can scan and OCR text from old books and newspapers. I can print text. I can edit text in any machine from a PDP-11 to a smart phone. When I'm limited to a slow and/or high latency connection text is the only format that works. I can use vi to edit a data file in a remote Unix system using a 300 bps modem if I need to. I can speak text on a phone for someone else to type it at the other end.

    When I'm managing an important system that *must* keep running under emergency situations only text will do.

    Object oriented system administration is bullshit.

  13. Re:Azure by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're lucky -- this is the first time in two weeks I don't have mod points. Are you Ballmer's grandson or something? Do you even know what an "object" is? MS's poo-pooing of text is one of the worst things about MS and one reason so many of us stay away. Text is human-readable, binary is not. If you're passing "objects" as text and your code goes kerflooey you can examine what was passed and easily figure out what went wrong. Not so with binary blobs. Mind explaining why you think passing binary makes more sense and gives more options?

    Have you ever used a single program that didn't come from Redmond? Your posts all make it sound like MS is the best thing since sliced bread, when most of us are fond of saying "the day MS makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they start making vaccuum cleaners" (Well, personally I think Excel is the best spreadsheet and MS mice weren't too bad, and I'd take an Xbox over a Sony any day).

    BTW, freeAVG just told me to reboot (I haven't got Linux on this box yet). Ironically, I don't mind rebooting Linux because it comes back exactly like I left it, but I never have to reboot. If I reboot Windows I have to restart every open program, yet I have to reboot every few days because something needed updating. Tell your dad to fix this, OK? And tell him to get rid of that God damned registry!

    MS is easy to use if you don't know what you're doing. Those of us who have been computing for decades find MS products maddeningly annoying -- the "Redmond way or no way" syndrome.

    I don't like Gnome, but IMO KDE is a far superior interface than Windows.

    Now I have to brush my teeth after biting that shilly troll. Ugh!

  14. Re:Azure by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Get rid of mental clutches and start using your brain is my advice.

    Because memorizing API's is what makes a good programmer? Spare me.