[ale] Update Linux alternative to Sharepoint

[Craig Button]

I actually did.  I need document sharing/collaboration, and a discussion
forum.  Nothing fancy.  25 - 100 users max, to coordinate grant and
scholarship awards.  And there was no mention of custom branding at all. So
far SharePoint has only made things easier.  I'm not sure how taking 2 hours
from turning the on switch to having 25 users playing with is to complicated
to the average user.  Everything Linux that I've tried was too complicated
for the average user.   Bloated and expensive, no argument there.  Due to
restriction by the people involved I have to keep the MS Office stuff.
We're using everything from word, excel and power point.  My fiscal
responsibility is to keep overhead to less than 3% of initial capital.

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of George
Carless
Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:58 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
Subject: Re: [ale] Update Linux alternative to Sharepoint

Good luck. My experiences with Sharepoint have been pretty miserable, but it
depends on what you need 
to do with it. But I wouldn't hold out much hope of doing any custom
branding, expanding the built-in 
functionality to a great degree (unless you have a bunch of Microsoft coders
at your disposal), etc.  
What's there is _ok_ if everything else you're dealing with is MSFT-based,
although in my experience 
the search is pretty terrible, too.  I do like some of the ways it allows
content to be treated in 
different ways (lists, spreadsheet view, etc.), but even there it's
inconsistent and rather 
infuriating.  Oh, and it's stupidly expensive and bloated, too.

Now, to your original question, I'm not sure that it's possible to answer
"what's a good alternative 
to Sharepoint," but it might be easier if you'd define what you're looking
for, what the goal is. I 
tend to feel that for collaboration, a decent Wiki is better than
Sharepoint; indeed, for most tasks 
I think Sharepoint makes life too complicated for the average user... but,
again, it depends on what 
you're really looking for.

George

Craig Button 
(craigb.rn at gmail.com) wrote the following 
on Tue, Sep 
29, 2009 at 02:06:26PM -0400:
> A week or so ago I posted a request for suggestions for a Linux
alternative
> to MS SharePoint.  I didn't get much in the way of responses, so I've had
to
> do some research myself.
> 
>  
> 
> Well I started with MS.  I downloaded demo of  MS Server 2007 and
SharePoint
> 2007.  Once burned to DVD I installed it on a new leftover computer with a
> new hard drive.
> 
>  
> 
> 1.5 hours later I had an intranet up and running, with document sharing,
> discussion board, email, calendar sharing and document collaboration.  I
> added the 25 people to the domain, and it's been being tested for that
past
> 5 days.   Easy and I never had to look at a manual or a book, it
recognized
> all the hardware, took the IP address and all that kind of stuff.  Haven't
> calculated cost yet, but we are eligible to education discount.  I figure
> this weekend I'll look into security issues and then take the next step.
> Linux alternatives.  Oh and the VPN is through the router so I didn't have
> to look into that kind of stuff at this level.
> 

> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com 
Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.115/2403 - Release Date: 09/29/09
17:56:00