I think there's a misunderstanding here.
payb.tc is asking "can I use 'bitcoin -server' as the SERVER, instead of using bitcoind" - yes, you can
grue thinks you're asking "can I use 'bitcoin -server' as the CLIENT, instead of using bitcoind" - no, you can't
The confusion arises from the fact that bitcond can act as both an RPC client and an RPC server, and bitcoin can act as both a graphical app and an RPC server.
Hope that clears it up!
No, I answered no because I interperted his post as "can you put this command line into bitcoin (gui), but with the -server argument". I said no because the gui doesnt parse commandline args like bitcoind does.