Windows Server 2008 a first look

I have been assigned at work as technical lead for a 500 host virtualisation project, my first part of which is to assess the current virtualisation technologies and produce a report explaining the benefits of each etc. As part of this process I'm including windows 2008.

So I fired up my VMware server and first thing I notice, it wont install with less than 512mb of ram, so far looks scarily like the vista install, for the moment I'm choosing the full install, though the minimal is probably what I'm likely to use. Windows is copying files , extracting files..... Restart ... A black screen with white writing, "Please wait while windows sets up your computer". A vista install screen "Please wait while windows continues to setup your computer", next screen "Completing installation". Another reboot and I get the vista loading bar...then.

As i'm running this in VM and because its not really doing anything I cant comment on performance, how ever I can show you the task manager performance screen with a fresh install and that server idling.

OK so far this has been interesting but not really useful, mainly because RC 0 doesn't have the drivers built for the VMware network card, rendering the test next to useless. So next I trash the install and over write it with a "Core" installation, Microsoft speak for the new minimal install. The install, except for choosing the Core install runs exactly the same as normal. Then when the machine finally reboots into its, new os you get the Same login screen as before, except this time it doesn't ask for a new password for the administrator account.

Ok so what am I missing? I can't login. This next bit is drawn from what I have read about win2k8 from the MS press. Once you login to your core installation, your presented with the familiar blue backdrop and a CMD.exe window. This isn't what I expected, I had envisaged a black screen a white chevron and a flashy cursor (perhaps this was to much to hope for, or too little). From the CMD.exe window, yes window.

The window is a bit of a disappointment , especially when you realise you can still run Notepad.exe in a window to "manage you scripts etc. " now VIM here. It seems the radical change in administration I have had in my head isn't coming. Though definitely a step in the right direction.

So I jumped the gun a bit and didnt try Administrator with no password, which lets you in then you prompted to supply a password and you login.

As you can see from the screenshot above the memory footprint for win2k8 core install is only 100mb less than the full install. Considering a server with less than 2gb of ram, would be rare these days is releasing 140Mb (ish) of you memory worth it?