What are the major pros and cons to developing .NET Web Apps on Windows Server 2008 R2 vs. Windows 7?

Question

My question is in the context of ease of development with MS development tools and IIS.

What are the pros and cons to developing directly on Windows Server 2008 R2 instead of Windows 7?

Answer 1

I develop in Windows 7 and deploy applications on Windows Server 2008 and I never felt any advantages/disadvantages on that. I really believe that there are no pro and cons from a development perspective.

Answer 2

I've used both and only noticed a slight difference so far.

One pro of server 2008 R2 is you have the Server Manager. This gives you access to frequently needed features and services. In Windows 7 it takes a few more mouse clicks.

Another pro for Server 2008 R2 is your development environment is more like production. I haven't run into any issues.

One small pro for Windows 7 is you have some eye candy features enabled by default. Some might see this as a con. If you want you can enable Aero in the server 2008 R2. I find the snap and shake features come in handy once every blue moon.

Answer 3

Unless you're writing code to configure specific features of IIS7 (for example you're writing a website provisioning application) that aren't available or not surfaced via the IIS management console in Windows 7, I'd stick with Windows 7.

If you're just writing bog standard web applications then there aren't really any pro's with regard to coding on a Windows 2008/R2 environment.

I write 95% of my code (which is actually hosting provisioning systems) on Windows 7. I have a VM with Windows 2008 and Visual Studio installed for the bits that I can't easily test or configure on Windows 7. For example the IIS Remote Management bits (Management Service, IIS Manager Users etc) aren't surfaced in Windows 7 IIS MMC even though it's there under the bonnet.