[SATLUG] MS Sharepoint Services - Open Source Alternative

[John Pappas]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Ramon Hermida <rhermida at utpa.edu> wrote:

> Fellow SATluggers,
>
> Is there an Open Source alternative that provides much of the
> functionality that MS Sharepoint Services provides?
>

Depends on the implementation goals.  In regards to the claims that
SharePoint makes on functionality, there are a large number of assumptions
made.  For example the "find people" comes from integration with AD, the
"Messaging" comes from integration with Exchange, the video/web conferencing
comes from Office Communications Server, and the Doc Management/Archival
comes from the actual SharePoint Services product.  Isn't it amazing that
SPS is all things to all people?  Remember that MS excels (hehe) at
integration (example: AD = LDAP + Kerb + Mgt Tooling + spices), so
"SharePoint" similarly lies in tying other products together.

So to compare Apples to Apples (hehe):
   If you are looking for Portals (or portal frameworks), there has been
some discussion on this list RE Joomla, Drupal, and the like.
   If you are looking for the collaboration/enterprise doc/knowledge
management, the 2 biggies are Alfresco and KnowledgeTree.
   If you want the chat/email/GAL etc then Zimbra or Scalix.  For the
video/Online collab, go with Jeremy on AccessGrid TK.

As with all things (is X like Y for me?) it boils down to the requirements:
Do I need Video communication?  Is Chat/Messaging within the scope of
this project?  etc...

HTH,
jp