Exchange Server 2003 fits on a single CD. For Exchange 12, which is expected to be released in the second half of 2006, the disk space consumption for a full install of the product is much larger than previous versions, because of certain features that use a lot of disk space across multiple languages. So because of that and because we've heard complaints from customers who didn't like multiple-CD installs of other server products, we are evaluating shipping the Exchange12 bits on a single DVD instead of multiple CDs.
We're aware that DVD drives are not as common in server hardware as they are in consumer and end user systems, but we're trying to get some feedback to understand how our customers feel about the idea of having a DVD for Exchange instead of multiple CDs. Here are some specific questions that we'd appreciate your answers to:
- In your Exchange server environment today, do you currently have a DVD drive available - such as on a machine reachable over the network from your server, or a USB DVD drive - from which you can install server software?
- Thinking about your Exchange environment in late 2006, do you expect to have a DVD drive available from which you can install server software at that time?
- Would you see Exchange shipping on one DVD (as opposed to multiple CDs) as a convenience or a hassle? If a hassle, do you have a "threshold point" for where a single DVD becomes more attractive than multiple CDs? I.e. is it 3 CDs? 4?
- Do you have any other comments on DVD or CD media for server software?
Please post your thoughts on this as comments to this post!
Microsoft