Genimuse:
Are you saying that a computer can be a server before any software is installed?
The marketing term "server" simply refers to more robust or capable hardware. If that really makes it a server, then all computers sold today are servers. Today's low end computer is yesterday's high end, and if it was a server then it should be a server now. The development of the new 500 Horsepower Ford GT doesn't mean that the Model T is no longer a car.
A server, in computing terms, can be either a server application (Apache, IIS, SQL Server, etc...) or the machine upon which it runs.
There are "server" editions of operating systems, but they are called that because they include server applications and/or provide better support for them than the regular edition.
No machine is a server until it's running a server application of some sort.
That being said, virtually all modern operating systems run
some sort of server software out of the box, even if it's only file sharing. So technically I guess all computers
are servers.
Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L
CompTIA Linux+
CompTIA Security+