Windows Server 2003 versus 2008

[Sysman]

I picked up a comment a few months ago that many large companies are still running Windows Server 2003 rather than 2008.

Having worked in large corporations I know that things move at a glacial speed, so it wouldn't surprise me, but I am interested in knowing what the uptake of 2008 is.

• Is this true?
• What are the main obstacles to upgrading?
  • Cost of licences?
  • Price of migration?
  • Compatibility?
    (corporate inertia is assumed)
• In what timescale is it likely to change?
• Is there a corresponding lag in the upgrade from Windows 2008 Server to the R2 version?

I've also read that there is less than the expected take-up of the Server Core versions of Server 2008. Knowing what a pig the Windows command line environment is, I can sympathise but my real question here is "Is the Core stuff worth learning?" (obviously not if nobody actually uses it).

[eek]

I picked up a comment a few months ago that many large companies are still running Windows Server 2003 rather than 2008.

Having worked in large corporations I know that things move at a glacial speed, so it wouldn't surprise me, but I am interested in knowing what the uptake of 2008 is.

• Is this true?
• What are the main obstacles to upgrading?
  • Cost of licences?
  • Price of migration?
  • Compatibility?
    (corporate inertia is assumed)
• In what timescale is it likely to change?
• Is there a corresponding lag in the upgrade from Windows 2008 Server to the R2 version?

I've also read that there is less than the expected take-up of the Server Core versions of Server 2008. Knowing what a pig the Windows command line environment is, I can sympathise but my real question here is "Is the Core stuff worth learning?" (obviously not if nobody actually uses it).

My guess is the need to rewrite code to work on 2008. I know of 8 internal applications at the current client that need a virtually total rewrite to work on 2008 and that is before they look at sharepoint customizations.

[Clippy]

It is all the arguments you have listed magnified several fold due to the recession.

Once the economy picks up and/or MS 'forces' corporations to move to a newer product by phasing out support of the older one then you will see and increased move away from Server 2003.

My guess would be once SP1 of Server 2012 is released - sometime in 2013 perhaps?

[DimPrawn]

Most corporations have a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to servers.

If it's running fine on Win 2003, and it's still a supported OS (which it is), why "upgrade" to 2008?

So unless there's a new killer feature in 2008 that's going to make the pain of transition worthwhile, no one in their right mind is going to move over.

Moving server OS is a pain and high risk.