Charging toward CTP6 on Longhorn...

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This weekend was going to be the one to setup Windows Home Server, but I got distracted by Windows Server 2008 when I just happened to see the x86 bits hit MSDN... which reminded me that I should covert my development VPC images over to 2008. (I've been busy with Mass Effect. Sorry.) I like Longhorn so far; the install is pretty simple and I think I like some of the changes there, but on disk its fatter than I'd hoped (<900MB or so bigger than a fully patched 2003 server image, but still fat). I guess I'm still bummed that I can't run SQL Server on a Core installation...

Dropped the latest internal/prerelease build of SQL Server 2008 onto it (gotta love undo disks!) for testing some AdventureWorks 2008 stuff and other samples and everything was clean. When I tried to install the x64 bits into the VPC image (I hadn't had my caffeine quota yet for the morning), the JavaScript error message from the setup HTA about platform mismatch wasn't as pretty as one might wish for, but... that just means that I need to switch my workstation to the x64 version of Virtual Server so that I can run x64 images and stop caring about x86 media entirely... Which would mean that they wouldn't work on my x86 tablet, though. Grrr!! Curses upon the accounting demons of the hardware refresh cycle budget! (Perhaps I should listen to something more peaceful than Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder & Lead" at work? Something soothing like the new Megadeath re-re-release?) Maybe I'll give up running VPCs on my tablet altogether and go back to remote desktop-only work from the aging Toshiba... but it doesn't have dual monitors like my workstation!! Where's my medication? (Gabe's explanation of the comic is a must read, too.)

Anyway, I have all my 2008s lined up in a row now and it all rocks together!! I noticed that 2008 includes a choice of enabling Vista look-n-feel, so maybe I'll give it a test spin on my workstation this week instead for Vista x64 (which is overdue for a reinstall already, for reasons that will best be forgotten and not Vista's fault at all -- caffeine is a jealous, jealous mistress).

Mmmm. SQL Server PowerShell. Yummy!!