I have gone on record more than once in support of Microsoft’s distinguishing between roles and features, in the Server Manager console. To quote Microsoft’s own help system, “A server role is a set of software programs that, when installed and properly configured, allows a computer to perform a specific function for multiple users or other computers within a network.” Again quoting the Server 2008 help, “Features are software programs that, though they are not directly parts of roles, can support or augment the functionality of one or more roles, or enhance the functionality of the entire server, regardless of which roles are installed.”
So, DNS Server is a role, and BitLocker is a feature. Makes sense, right? So why the !@##$ is WINS Server a feature and not a role? If DNS Server is a role, then WINS Server should be a role, too. They both provide name resolution services.
For that matter, why is the Group Policy Management Console a feature all by itself, with its own upper-level checkbox, and not simply part of the Remote Server Administration Tools, like all the other administrative consoles? In what universe does that make sense?
I suppose we should just all recognize that Microsoft seems congenitally incapable of getting organized. Every time they have a good idea to get organized (think of the Windows 3.1 Registry, for example), the inconsistencies and quirks of sloppy execution undermine it.
