What Is The Difference Between The Windows 2000 Server And 2003 Server?

The Windows 2000 server is business-oriented operating system made available in February 2000. It was advertised as the most secure system ever released by Microsoft. However, for many this did prove to be a true statement. Over the Microsoft has continued to provide security patches to Windows 2000 computers due to its vulnerability to viruses.

Windows 2000 was designed to work with uniprocessors or symmetric multi-processors with 32-bit Intel x86 computers.  The Windows 2000 was followed by Windows XP and then Windows 2003. Windows 2000 is in the class of hybrid kernel operating systems and has two modes: The user mode and the kernel mode, which gives unrestricted access to system resources and facilitates the user mod. The user mode is highly restrictive and is designed for most applications.

Microsoft 2000 has an encrypting file system; active directory services, distributed file system, assistive technologies, systems management server, and a system preparation tool among it many provisions. It was susceptible to the Code Red and Mimda virus and still needs security patches to keep out viruses. Over the years the 2000 has been improved and additional processing tools have been made available.  

Windows 2003 is a server operating system released in April 2003 to succeed Windows 2000 server. It was advertised as a better business product. It is more scalable and gives better performance for some. The 2003 incorporates compatibility and others from the Windows XP its predecessor.  Much of the IIS web server was rewritten to perform the overall performance and security of the distributed file system, the system, which supports hosting of multiple DFS roots on a single server. Some other services are the terminal server, active directory, and print server.

Windows 2003 survived several name changes and was known by the codename "Whistler Server", Windows 2002 Server, and finally Windows. NET server.  The newest server is the "Longhorn" to be released this year.

All of the information about each of these products is several pages in  length and the most complete information and explanations of each product can be found at Wikipedia.com.
See link, if it fails, simply copy and paste the link into your web browser.

en.wikipedia.org

           The Windows 2000 server is an older version of the operating system which was developed by the Microsoft Corporation. The Windows 2003 server is an upgraded version of the Windows 2000 server.

           The former is an improvement over in the latter in many ways, including the fact that it supports both a 32-bit processor as well as a 64-bit processor (however, it depends on which version you are using). It also supports the facility of symmetric multi-processing for up to 64 processors and up to 512 gigabytes of random access memory, which is abbreviated as 512GB of RAM.

           On the other hand, in case of the Windows 2000 server, the user of the server has to rebuild the entire domain to change the name of the domain and the Windows 2000 server supports a maximum of ten users. These ten users can simultaneously access a shared folder at one time using a shared network.

"Windows 2000" is also called as "Win2k" . It is an interruptible, business oriented and graphical operating system which was just designed to work along with the "uniprocessor" or "symmetric multi processor 32 bit Intel x86 computers". It is a part of the "Microsoft Windows NT" series of operating systems. It was succeeded by "windows XP" in "windows server 2003". The "Windows 2000 Server" has extra and additional functionality which includes the ability to provide the "Active Directory services". Active directory services is a hierarchical framework of resources. Windows 2000 server also proved Distributed File System (it is a file system which supports file sharing) and storage volumes for fault redundancy. "Windows Server 2000" supports upto four processors, up to four GB of RAM. "Windows 2000 server" is designed to use for web applications, file servers, print servers etc.
Windows 2003 server is a "server operating system". It is created by Microsoft. It is also called as successor of "Windows 2003 server". It's performance is much better than the "Win2k". it can be used as "centralized management tool" for the printers and files. It gives "enhanced quota management". "Windows 2003 server" also includes "compatibility modes" to allow the older applications to run and execute with larger stability.

Windows server 2000 doesn't provide stub zone facility in DNS.
In windows server 2003 name of the domain can be changed but in case of server 2000 it is not possible. In windows server 2000 emergency repair disk can be made but in windows server 2003 automated system recovery is used.

SECURITY!!!

Windows 2000 has many vulnerabilities. Switch to Windows 2003 for a more secure environment.

1)    When installing terminal services for win2000 u r
prompted to select application server functions or
administrative functions sets can be installed sequentially on
one server but it performs only one function at one time.
But in 2003 still distinguishes between application and
administrative services but installation and management are
now consolidated.

2)    In 2000 we cannot rename domain whereas in 2003 we
can rename Domain.

3)    In 2000 it supports of 8 processors and 64 GB RAM
(In 2000 Advance Server) whereas in 2003 supports up to 64
processors and max of 512GB RAM.

4)    2000 Supports IIS 5.0 and 2003 Supports IIS6.0

5)    2000 doesn’t support Dot net whereas 2003 Supports
Microsoft .NET 2.0

6)    2000 has Server and Advance Server editions whereas
2003 has Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter and Web server
Editions.

7)    2000 has basic concept of DFS (Distributed File
systems) with defined roots whereas 2003 has Enhanced DFS
support with multiple roots.

8)    In 2000 we can create 1 million users and in 2003
we can create 1 billion users.

9)    In 2000 we don’t have end user policy management,
whereas in 2003 we have a End user policy management which
is done in GPMC (Group policy management console).

10)    In 2000 we have cross domain trust relation ship
and 2003 we have Cross forest trust relationship.

11)    2000 Supports 4-node clustering and 2003 supports 8-
node clustering.

12)    Code name of 2000 is Win NT 5.0 and Code name of
2003 is Win NT 5.1

13)    2003 has Improved Print management compared to 2000
server.

14)    2003 has telnet sessions available.

15)    2000 supports IPV4 whereas 2003 supports IPV4 and
IPV6.

I thing there is not major different but security reason is more important for 2003 than 2000