Question

I'm a Unix guy and confused on some of the Windows 2008 licenses (irony).

What are the differences between: Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, &c? Same codebase and kernel? What materially is different?

Also, they appear to be sometimes licensed by CPU? Is that socket or core licensing?

Answer 1

Here is a decent to-the-point comparison I found for you:

http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2008/02feb/0208ws2plp%5Fch.htm

As you work up through the version, each one can support more ram, cpus, virtual sessions, cluster services, hyper-v, and features like hot swap cpu's.

To my knowledge, they are not licences by cpu's. Each version however supports a certain amount of cpu cores and supports a certain amount of "virtual" stations. The license you buy is for the type of server you are running it on. Beyond that, it all CAL (user/device based licensing).

Answer 2

With regard to your first question, it's not a terrific page but this does have a breakdown of features by Windows Server 2008 "flavour":

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/r2-compare-features.aspx

Answer 3

In regards to the CPU licensing, that's not for Windows Server. You license the clients with Client Access Licenses (CAL's) and you can have as many x-core CPU's as the Edition will allow - Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter..