I was considering using Windows Server as the OS for my main .NET development workstation. It includes the version of IIS to which I'm most often deploying, manages FIPS compliance differently, etc. I certainly don't use any of the multimedia or gaming advantages (if there are any?) of a workstation OS.
What pros/cons come with using a server OS for your main .NET development workstation?
I've found Windows Server 2008 R2 to be a great operating system on which to work as my day-to-day desktop machine. Having the ability to deploy to IIS 7 locally, work with SQL Server, and manage other VMs via Hyper-V has been such a help to my development process.
That said, I've run in to some issues with other applications not "liking" the server os, but I know you can enable a 'Feature' in Server 08 R2 for Desktop Experience that lets most of the applications run anyway. Just be prepared to tune the OS to do what you need it to do.
I use Win 2008 R2 server on my personal machine. The reason? It originates from the times of Win98 / NT4.
Win98 was unstable and crashed all the time. NT4 was rock solid.
Then there was XP vs. 2003 server. The same story. 2003 performed much more stable.
Then it was Vista vs. 2008 server. No comments here.
Now it is Win7 vs. 2008 R2. This choice is a tough one. They both look like stable OSes. I chose 2008 R2 nevertheless. Mostly it is old habit.
One real reason: I've always disliked the amount of decorations, animations and all that stuff which was activated by default on desktop versions. It always took a long time to disable unnecessary stuff. The ugliest of all was Vista with all those marketing and annoying suggestions to upgrade, it looked like some porn site. I understood in 15 minutes, I wouldn't have the nerve to keep it on my machine.
With server versions, everything is off by default, I only enable what I really need.
One more reason. Windows 2008 (R2) supports hardware virtualization (Hyper-V server role). Other Windows version don't. So it's the only option then.
One disadvantage of Win 2008 (R2): Bluetooth stack is removed from it. :(
I use Windows 7 to developer at home because my development machine happens to also be powerful enough to play newer games :)
But to agree with others that have posted, I use Windows Server 2008 at work (R2 is x64 only, and my dev box is still x86, hence the slightly out-of-date version), and I've had no issues. I actually prefer it, as you can disable the user frills that are common with a desktop version of Windows, and free up more resources for your development tools.
The pro in running Server OS for development is you have an environment that is almost similar to your deployment environment, if you're building software that will run on a server that is. For some platform such as SharePoint you have to run a server OS for development.
Windows Server, especially with Win Server 2008, will come out of the box more secured, unneeded services will be turned off by default, I don't know if this is an advantage or a disadvantage.
As far as disadvantage, some application that are built for desktop primarily will not run well on your server OS. They will most likely run but you will have little issues here and there. The best example is iTunes, it will run but you'll see some weird errors from time to time. Also, some apps do check for supported operating systems, and most likely will not even install if you're running a server OS.
Finally, there's colors is a bit off on Windows Server, I have one monitor that it is hooked up to a Windows Server 2008 R2 and a Windows 7 machine, on Windows server 2008 R2 color are bit lighter, I do a lot of graphic design so this was very annoying.
So the answer depends on what you develop and what applications you use most often. Most apps and drivers will work without a problem.
I've been using Server 2003 and latterly 2008. Much better than the corresponding desktop OS versions for the reasons above and also because (and this isn't proven but certainly comes from empirical evidence) the server OSes seem to be more optimised (or perhaps don't have as much pointless bloatware). You've probably seen this: http://www.win2008workstation.com/ but just in case.
I can confirm it all works perfectly.