Which version to use?

[mbm30075]

My company is a Microsoft partner, and I've recently deployed our 2 Windows Server 2008 MAPS licenses on two new machines I've built.

 

The new OS seems to rock like crazy, and I'm interested in Windows Vista "Workstation" (a la a pared down version of Server 2008). I want it to do very little actual "server" tasks, preferring rather to have simply a nice, stable, fast OS for my laptop to run Visual Studio, SQL Server and some other apps we have in house. XP is alright, but I'd like to get up into the Vista kernel, but don't like the actual versions of Vista that are available.

 

Windows Server 2008 Standard costs too much for my company to justify the expense. Windows WEB Server 2008 is a little bit more palatable, but are there any limitations (for MY planned usage) to be aware of? Should I just change one of my MAPS licenses to my box and redeploy the other box as an XP one? (This would only cost me time, not much else...)

 

Also, we have a bunch of CDs for installation Windows Home Server, Windows SBS Server and Windows Essential Business Server. All are 2008, brand new from our MAPS. Are any of these viable options for me?

 

Hope I've been clear. Thanks for any help!!!