Several people asked me for more details about the software I’m running on my new Dell Inspiron 530. The short answer is Windows Server 2008 Standard, x64. You can get more details about how well the Hyper-V server software works on this system in my latest post at ZDNet:
Is Hyper-V ready for the Windows desktop?
And don’t miss the accompanying image gallery.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
Mark Russinovich says in a recent article at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc194386.aspx
“Because Windows Server® 2008 shares the same kernel as Windows Vista® SP1….”
So what you are talking about here Ed, is this Vista in sheep’s clothing?
I stuck my toe in the “virtual waters” a few months ago and found it daunting and cold. How will virtualization be so much better now that Microsoft is in the fray?
“Daunting and cold?” What didn’t work for you? I’ve hated Virtual PC 2007 because it was so slow, but this particular software works especially well. And as for the “sheep’s clothing,” well, I like Vista, on the right hardware with the right drivers, and Server 2008 is nothing short of excellent. So again, I’m not sure I catch your point.
Yes, my Virtual experiences were with V PC 2007 and some version of VMware. The slowness and small screen did not work for me. Maybe it was my hardware.
I’m a Vista user on five different machines as old as a 2002 vintage (ThinkPads all) and yes, Vista works decent on all of them now that it’s “fixed up” a bit.
My “sheep’s clothing” term was an oblique way of saying Microsoft seems to want to use the kernel in other areas other than “just” Vista, to get some more use out of their investment in time & dollars for the product.
This could be an interesting alternative to VMWare (and other desktop VM products) just for software testing alone. It’s nice not having to wait for VMs to start and being able to run several VMs at the same time without worrying about how it affects the desktop PCs resources. I’ll upgrade my home server hardware at some point and try this out.