Wiley Microsoft Windows Server 2008: Implementation and Administration 978-0-470-17459-3 Manuel D’Utilisation

 

Any server operating system version upgrade involves changes to nearly every subsystem, and 
Windows Server 2008 is no exception. There have been kernel changes to allow for better processor 
virtualization, driver model changes to make drivers more stable and secure, a completely new 
TCP/IP protocol stack for better performance, a new graphics engine, and very significant changes 
to the Windows Class Libraries that give access to the Windows .NET Framework and Network 
Class Library. To a user learning Windows Server 2008, these changes underpin all of the new pro-
cedures that differentiate Windows Server 2008 and Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) from the previous 
versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. So in order to provide a framework for our dis-
cussions in future chapters, this first chapter explains the Windows Server 2008 architectural model, 
along with the changes that they portend.

There have been enormous changes in the Windows Server architecture for this release of 

Microsoft’s flagship product. As Microsoft’s desktop OS and Microsoft Office slow down in reve-
nue growth, Windows Server has become particularly important to Microsoft’s fortunes. Microsoft 
Windows Server 2008 continues Microsoft’s push to integrate web-based services into its server 
product. There are now strong links to the .NET Framework, both programmatically as well as in 
the look and feel of applications that will take advantage of the architecture that is described in this 
chapter. While Microsoft emphasizes the new modules that affect what the user can see, there are 
plenty of architecture changes to basic systems such as the kernel, memory, services, and many 
more. In this chapter, you will read about the most significant architectural goals of this release and 
how you can get even more value out of your investment in Windows Server.  

 

Writing an operating system for a new computer system has always been something of a heroic 
effort. In 1981 Tracy Kidder won a Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for his book 

 

, in which he describes the creation of the 32-bit Eclipse MV/8000 mini-

computer at Data General. The company Data General was competing with at the time was Digital 
Equipment Corporation (DEC), their computers were the PDP-11 series, and that operating system 
was VAX (short for Virtual Address Extension).

The early history of Windows NT as documented in G. Pascal Zachary’s 

 

 (1994) was similarly chaotic. NT started as 

a co-development project between IBM and Microsoft; it was to be version 3.0 of OS/2, both com-
panies having worked on versions 1 and 2. Windows 3.0’s success led Microsoft to develop OS/2 
API into an extended Windows API, at which point the joint project fell apart. IBM would go on to 
release OS/2 3.0 as their “Warp” version, which although something of a success in the business 
world never caught on with the general public. Microsoft chose another direction.

 

74593.book  Page 1  Wednesday, January 9, 2008  4:11 PM