RE: Is server 2003 worth it?

Hello,

Have you looked into the Windows 2003 Small Business Server R2 product? It
is designed for small businesses and includes Microsoft Exchange and
Windows Sharepoint Services at a low price point. The Premium Edition also
includes Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition and Microsoft Internet
Security and Accelleration Server 2004. There are some limitations on SBS
so please verify that it does meet you needs:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...s/default.mspx You can also
direct questions about its suitability for you in our SBS newsgroup or to
your software reseller.

SBS is designed to provide more of the "out of the box" experience, whereas
WIndows Server 2003 Standard and Enterprise are typically used in more
complex environments with a few to thousands of servers.

Small Business Server is only presently available in a 32 bit release
however, this is mainly due to the limitation in Exchange 2003.

Exchange 2007 which is currently in the final testing and development cycle
will be fully supported on Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 and Windows
Server 2003 Enterprise Edition x64 and available in the upcoming months.

In addition, there are 3rd party email server applications that have been
designed to run on Windows Server 2003 and should be supported by the
vendors of those application.


Hope this helps,

Brian Delaney
Microsoft Canada
--

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--------------------
>From: "mar2003" <>
>Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.general
>Subject: Is server 2003 worth it?
>Date: 4 Dec 2006 14:20:17 -0800
>Organization: http://groups.google.com
>
>So about 5 days ago I got a server with Windows 2003 R2 x64 Standard.
>I
>have not received the server yet, but I started to look up resources on
>how
>to setup a web server - web site, e-mail, etc.
>
>I chose Windows Server because I believed it would be easier to
>maintain and
>setup than having to setup Linux. I have had a great experience with
>Windows XP, and love that everything is "ready out of the box", and so
>I
>expected the same from Windows Server.
>
>Much to my surprise, after doing a few searches online, IMAP e-mail
>support
>with advanced junk mail filtering does not seem to be built-in to
>Windows
>Server. To make matters worse, the only Microsoft-supported way to get
>IMAP
>is Exchange Server - another pricey upgrade. And for the icing on the
>cake - Exchange Server can't be run on x64.
>
>What is this, 1992? How is it not possible to get a server that has
>built-in support for all e-mail standards (IMAP is how old now..?),
>with
>64-bit support, without having to pay an arm and a leg?
>
>And then, what pushed me over the edge, is Microsoft has no way of
>directly
>contacting an agent, and their newsgroup site,
>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/com...s/win2003.mspx
,
>
>is buggy and refuses to work (do a search for "imap" under "Search
>Windows
>Server 2003 Newsgroups", then click on the results)!
>
>Excuse my frustration, but I'm simply not seeing what the point of
>paying
>$800 extra for Windows Server was if I can't even get basic
>functionality,
>service, or anything I can't get with a free Linux product!
>
>Any help on this? I'm not sure what else to do....
>
>thanks
>
>