Silicon Shecky

I tend to read a number of blogs, especially tech ones, and some I love to read. The SBS Diva is one of my favorites. This MVP has some great insights on the Microsoft Small Business platform, and usually is fun to read. Of course there are moments which make me go Hmmmm… when reading her posts.

She made a very elequent post about change as it relates to SBS 2008 compared to SBS 2003, and how we have to sometimes bite the bullet. Yes, a lot of the changes in SBS 2008 we asked for. The Vista interface, Needing to run everything in elevated mode, and some other items like that we did not ask for.

Yes change happens, but do we not still have a right to complain about what we don’t like? I would say we do, cause without those gripes, how would the next version become any better?

Also, if you read the post, make note of her thoughts on Microsoft’s backup system. Personally, I will not use it outside of maybe a test environment, mostly because I’ve found in the past that it never quite works as easy as it should. For me it is more along the lines of having been burned by Microsoft Backup one too many times.

Anywho, I do recommend checking her blog out, as she updates it frequently, and it has a lot of good information. Plus, if you can get into commenting on it, it can create some really good discussions.

So I finally got a test box to load SBS 2008 on. Having worked with SBS 2003 R2 for a number of years, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The install, which was from scratch, went pretty smoothly. I did notice that there was no place to do much customization of the install, which meant everything was going on the box from the start.

When the install got ready to start it did ask if I wanted to check for and download updates to be installed at that time, which I thought was a nice little touch. The full load time was about 2 hours.

Once installed, I noticed that it had a new Management interface. With the Vista base for the GUI, I was expecting changes, but not quite the ammount that I got. I didn’t see many of the things I’ve come to trust with the SBS 2003 interface, namely the advanced options such as computer management, Exchange browsing, etc. Midn you I have not looked hard into it all yet.

The other thing I noticed was that it gave itself a static IP without any input from me. This to me is a big no no especially if you are initially hooking it onto an existing network, as it could pick an IP Address that is used by a machine already on the network.

Outside of that right now, It seems like a nice system. I still have to run through the wizards to set up everything on it. It definitely is an experience though. The next thing to see is how intuitive it is and is the learning curve any different than looking at a Linux GUI or Mac GUI for the first time.

So, while reading the other blogs and news sites I check daily, I came across this interesting article. It seems that Microsoft’s .NET 3.5 SP1 has caused yet more problems. This time with Exchange 2007 on SBS 2008.  With this latest issue that has now cropped up with .Net 3.5 Its time to remember a few things…

1) In Microsoft’s defense, they can’t test everything before releasing stuff. That is why hot fixes exist.

2) Never just accept patches. Always find a way of testing them yourself, even if it is on a personal machine, and research the patches also to see what problems other’s have had. The more reports you find, the more prepared you can be about any issues with it.

I know they are simple thoughts, but just watching how Microsoft has screwed up with this latest version of  .Net it just amazes me that people don’t think of these things. Course, I am one to speak.