Greetings, all. I'm forming a small business and need to set up a server. There are two of us now and could be up to five people concurrently accessing the software that our business will be using. We won't be using Exchange and won't be hosting a web site. We just need a place to hold our database. I'm donating my desktop computer to the cause. It's running an older Socket A (462) motherbaord. I'll be replacing the chip with an Athlon 3200 and increasing RAM to the maximum three gigs. Given the above, what server OS should I be looking at? Money is a problem, but I see that Microsoft is dropping support of '03. I've seen a version called Small Business Server for '08. What's the difference between that and '08 Standard? Thanks in advance for your insights.

Small Business Editions are usually quite attractive for small business that do not need full enterprise solutions. To get an idea of what this product will provide you should start with this link, which I beleive will answer many of questions. Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2008 Technical FAQ: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sbs/cc817589.aspx You could simply use Windows Server 2008, but the licensing requirements are not the same and depending on what you are ultimately going to use the server for, it may be more cost effective to use an SBS version.Visit my blog: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Hi , In line to Jorge suggestion here are my views. a) Make sure the application is compatible with windows 2008, i would still say that 32bit application should still run on windows 2008 32 bit , but i have seen some users having problmes related with their custom applications b) once you get a green signal on the above , then you could rely on windows 2008 standard server as you are not planning to implement any additional service. As a server it provides you with several features which may or maynot be of interest and i think your main requirement is to run the appliation on the server