if we go back to when NT came about isn't this similar? afterall, workstation/server oses are made more streamlined for a purpose, to run more efficiently with less overhead than standard mainstream consumer oses...
2k8 is very modular, hence it will have advantages off the mark...because many things are not enabled...
The Way I See It : Using Windows Server 2008 as a SUPER workstation OS
w7 will take this approach perhaps, everything off by default