>why would this not give me a list of all db's on a MS SQL Server 2008 server?
>
>select CATALOG_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA where SCHEMA_NAME='dbo'

In SQL 2000 the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA wasn't complaint with SQL Standard. It has been fixed starting with SQL 2005.
In SQL 2005 and later you can use

SELECT name FROM sys.databases