The Most Important Microsoft Release of the Year
|
With Microsoft sending out the RTM code for Office 2007 this week, and with Vista RTM code due out any day now, this is definitely a busy month for Microsoft. And there's no underestimating the impact of these releases, with Vista representing the first new version of Windows in years and Office 2007 being the most impressive and truly significant upgrade of Office in close to ten years. But getting lost a bit in the noise and hype is one Microsoft product release that, in the long run, may end up being the most important, especially on the enterprise side. And that product is Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007. Listed ostensibly as a component of Office, SharePoint is actually much more. You can make a very good argument that SharePoint is now the core platform on which almost all Microsoft-based web, SOA, BPM, ecommerce, content management, collaboration and of course portal initiatives will be built. In my initial tests of the early beta of SharePoint Server 2007 I saw some of this but as I've begun testing the more recent releases it's become much clearer that SharePoint will be the one must have product released this year for any Microsoft-centric business. And based on my tests so far, I am impressed. As the final gold code of SharePoint Server 2007 comes out we at eWEEK Labs will finalize our tests and everyone will get to read the full review at that time. But I already feel safe in saying that, while many companies will hold off on upgrading to Vista or the classic suite portion of Office 2007, companies serious about building a web and services infrastructure using Microsoft technology will find SharePoint Server 2007 to be an upgrade that they won't want to hold off on.
|
Comments (22)
Where is Mary Joe?
Posted by cd | November 7, 2006 11:17 AM
Give the guy a break, man.
Posted by Phil | November 7, 2006 12:16 PM
Vista is the biggest peice of crap next to Zune to be released form MSFT. Office is good but the interface is terrable (not the ribbon, its a great UI concept) but the actual theme, it reminds me of MSN and bubble boy. Vista is an eyesore and just so difficult, not to mention finding where things are.
Their answer to security is their usual bland and terrable Yes No Ok or Cancel Dialog boxes (User Access Control - one of the first things to be disabled).
The only way Vista is taking off is because of DX10 games and its shipping with all new OEM computers so there is no escaping it.
Posted by Master Bates | November 7, 2006 1:06 PM
Jim, please learn to write informational blogs. Informational is not "I tried it and I liked it".
Also, please learn not to begin sentences with 'And'.
My god. MSWatch is horrid now.
Posted by Russell Wilson | November 7, 2006 1:11 PM
MSFT suffers from having too many geeks and managers who either want to ship technocrap or just walk around being "visible" in the corporate structure and waving their "commitment's" about in order to level up in the corporate skill ladder.
Comparing Apple to Microsoft is like apples to oranges. Totally different and it shows in their products.
MSFT still needs to change their internal structure and practices alot more than Lisa Brummel claims to have, its not that big a change, they still have the bell curve on stock awards (in short, people lose out because they have to have specific allocations and even if they overperform they still have to get the small amount due to the bell curve).
They need to get UX more involved in products and REAL designers, face it, engineers are engineers not designers so stop pretending to be. This is why Zune is a flop, nothing more than a brand placeholder product.
They are process bloated internally, they have become the IBM and now their corporate processes are strangling them.
Posted by Uncle Fester | November 7, 2006 1:30 PM
Jim, nice to hear some info from a personal perspective, it's needed these days with so much hardcore and "cold" information. Rock ON!
I have been sneaking around inside Sharepoint 2007 too, and i'm also impressed, and now I know I'm not the only one :)
Posted by Kevin | November 7, 2006 1:51 PM
Can you give me a good reason to use Vista (appart from getting it with a new laptop)? I cant think of one except the Crysis game but even then that will wait until I get my Cure 2 Duo laptop which is way into next year and I dont plan on running Vista just for that game when I can pass my time with QuakeWars.
Posted by Uncle Fester | November 7, 2006 2:01 PM
Can you give me a good reason to use Vista?
Posted by Uncle Fester | November 7, 2006 2:08 PM
Why is this so laggy in submitting comments that end up as dupes?
Posted by Dr lag | November 7, 2006 3:22 PM
Where did this bozo come from?
Posted by Greg S. | November 7, 2006 4:45 PM
I'm a fag.
Posted by Greg S | November 7, 2006 5:02 PM
Jim... 2 things mate (yes I am Australian, and I won't hold it against you being an American)!
1. Nice to see that you CAN write a reasonably (only reasonably mind you) good article when you try.
2. This is the most important one ... the above article is on www.microsoft-watch.com and not www.eweek.com !
If you are going to put an article on MS Watch the least you could do is "We at MS Watch..." and not "We at eweek labs...".
Otherwise just write for eweek will you !
I feel that from some of the other stuff you have done here that commenters would be feel a lot better if you did !
I do realise that MS Watch and eweek are owned by Ziff Davis, but... you should at least some sort of distinction between the two !
Come on don't keep disappointing me like this !
Posted by Neil | November 7, 2006 5:58 PM
ONE AND ALL... I have just gone to the eweek site and discovered that Jim Rapoza is the eweek "Labs Director".
You would think that a person "in charge" of labs would work in a methodical manner and always make his comparisons stated, rather than what Jim does when he compares something but doesn't say what he is comparing it to !!
If Ms Watch keeps this up, it will no longer be a good site to read for any reason.
Scot Peterson .... no facts
Jim Rapoza ..... generalisations
Peter Galli.... cut and paste
NO JOPUNALISM AT ALL !
Posted by Neil | November 7, 2006 6:31 PM
ONE AND ALL... I have just gone to the eweek site and discovered that Jim Rapoza is the eweek "Labs Director".
You would think that a person "in charge" of labs would work in a methodical manner and always make his comparisons stated, rather than what Jim does when he compares something but doesn't say what he is comparing it to !!
If Ms Watch keeps this up, it will no longer be a good site to read for any reason.
Scot Peterson .... no facts
Jim Rapoza ..... generalisations
Peter Galli.... cut and paste
Posted by Neil | November 7, 2006 6:32 PM
Wow! Looks like there are a lot of cry-babies around here, weeping about how they can't handle a change in writing style.
Personally I loved the stuff Mary wrote, but I find Jim's stuff refreshing.
Just my 2 cents. Keep it up Jim. The naysayers are always the ones who shout loudest.
Posted by Danish | November 7, 2006 7:37 PM
Yeah just like a danish.... the soft part is on the inside... in this case what passes for a brain !
Posted by Neil | November 7, 2006 7:50 PM
WHY is it the most important release? WHAT is Office SharePoint Server? Do us a favor and don't blog on something unless you can actually provide some useful information.
Posted by RJ | November 8, 2006 1:23 AM
I'd like to know what kind of tests you did. List some of the things you were impressed about.
A little more meat please...
Posted by BigFuzz | November 8, 2006 1:41 AM
Geezus already, give the guys a break. There are different styles to everyone.
Posted by Cap | November 8, 2006 1:59 PM
Hello Microsoft and Vista members this is Karamvir. Finally Microsoft has released Windows Vista to RTM. The perfomance was superb and mindblowing. But icons and some part of UI still looks dirty with. Transparency is not up to date. For more comments visit CHRISS PRILLO's websiste for Windows Vista. I will be writing more feedbacks and comments about Windows Vista RTM Build 6000.
Bye! Bye!
----- Karamvir Singh Rajpal
November 9,2006
Posted by Karamvir Singh Rajpal | November 9, 2006 12:40 AM
What about Groove? Can you write about Groove vs. SharePoint?
Posted by Anonymous | November 12, 2006 11:18 PM
My thought is Groove can be thought of as the fat client for collaborating from person to person or teams much as SharePoint can be thought of as the thin client. Going forward, a typical example might be that a person or team may create content together while traveling online or offline and then post that to SharePoint where additional policies, workflow and publishing to audiences might take place.
Posted by Tim Tisdale | November 28, 2006 12:03 PM