SharePoint Server 2010 Vs. SharePoint Foundation 2010

Getting confused with the terms Foundation, Server & bla bla ? or what they are referring to? If your answer is "Yes" then you are on the right source of these SharePoint Bits. By the way, I also became culprit of this confusion first ;) then referred couple of resources and finally got it..

Well, these terms refers to different editions of SharePoint 2010. Each edition has some unique set of SharePoint 2010 features and some editions are also dependent on other or primary editions. Here is the list of SharePoint 2010 editions.
1. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
2. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
3. Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise 2010

As the name indicates, SharePoint Foundation 2010 consist of all fundamental and basic capabilities of SharePoint 2010. And SharePoint Server 2010 is built on top of SharePoint Foundation. That means
- SharePoint Server cannot work without having SharePoint Foundation installed.
- Whereas, SharePoint Foundation can work without having SharePoint Server installed.
- Since SharePoint Server is build on top of Foundation, it includes all the features of SharePoint Foundation and also includes some of its own additional features.

And to summarize, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 extends SharePoint Foundation 2010 to provide a full-featured business collaboration platform that scales from the enterprise to the Web.

Component Diagram below visualises the relation of SharePoint Server 2010 with other editions or components..(Click on picture to enlarge)



Similarly SharePoint Enterprise 2010 is built on top of SharePoint Server 2010 and includes all the features of SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server.

To see the comparison between features supported by each edition, follow this MS article