I just installed Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2003 on my test server. I now have Exchange 2003, Active Directory, SQL 2000, and Sharepoint 2003 all running on a single server. This is not a recommended configuration, but the installation went smoothly and everything seems to be working fine.
Sharepoint is one of the more interesting products Microsoft has released. In essence the Sharepoint is a portal software, similar to this website. Users can post comments, create a discussion board, update the news, and schedule events. There is nothing too interesting about the portal portions of the program. There are open source portal applications such as Xoops, Postnuke, and Drupal that are highly functional and free.
If portal software is all you need then open source tools should be sufficient. Where Sharepoint Server gets interesting is the document collaboration functions. Sharepoint redefines how files are shared. Files have traditionally been shared using mapped drives, and/or e-mail. Sharing files through files through these methods have some obvious limitations.
Mapping drives have been around since the early days of Novell. There has been little innovation in the file servers since. The file server today is pretty much the same as the Novell file server that existed since the 80s.
The biggest problem with file servers is mapping drives across different networks is difficult. Bridging a Novell network with a Windows networks is burdensome. Connecting different files servers across different subnets, and networks is also difficult.
To circumvent the problems, people have been increasing relying on e-mail to collaborate on documents. Everyone has an e-mail account, so mailing attachments is a simple method of exchanging documents. But using e-mails as a collaboration tool creates some additional problems. There is no central location where a master document is stored. It is also very easy to get versions confused using e-mail. Another problem with e-mail attachments is the system administrators gets really annoyed at people constantly e-mailing documents. Attachments were prone to viruses, and waste valuable space on the e-mail server.
Sharepoint server solves a lot of these problems. Since Sharepoint is a web portal, all you need is a web browser to access the files. No more mapping drives, or e-mailing attachments. There is even a simple version control tool, so you can keep track of changes on a document. Sharepoint is also highly integrated into the new version of Office. With the newer version of Office you don’t even need a web-browser to upload files to the Sharepoint server.
Overall I have a very positive view of Sharepoint. It would be interesting to see how people use the software in a live environment. I’m getting tired, I want to stop writing.
Recovered from the Wayback Machine — originally posted on woojae.com (“Where Nerds Meet”).