BetaWiki:Featured article/2024-09
Windows Server 2003 is a major release of Windows Server released on 24 April 2003. It is the server counterpart of Windows XP, although it was released nearly 18 months after its original release and is built on a slightly newer codebase (kernel version 5.2 rather than 5.1). It replaces Windows 2000 Server and was eventually succeeded by Windows Server 2008.
A major update called Windows Server 2003 R2 was released on 6 December 2005, although unlike server versions with the R2 moniker that were in fact based on newer Windows versions, it was still built on the same codebase as the original version. The update included .NET Framework 2.0, Microsoft Management Console 3.0, Virtual Server 2005 and Windows Services for UNIX. Several other products were built on the codebase of Windows Server 2003, included the updated Itanium release of Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.