The lock-in battle shifts to Sharepoint
Summary: You can put together everything SharePoint does using open source projects, but it takes work.
The fight over being locked-in to Microsoft, which once focused on client applications like Office, is now shifting to servers and SharePoint.
On the surface SharePoint is merely a document management system which lets everyone in your company share and find Office documents easily. But critics like our own Matt Asay call it a Trojan Horse, which will bind companies which deploy it to Microsoft forever.
You can put together everything SharePoint does using open source projects, but it takes work. You can combine Alfresco (from the Electronic Content Management (ECM) software company Matt works for), the Liferay portal, JasperSoft for reporting, and Zimbra's e-mail server. Throw in some Jive forums and you're more than done.
But what does that cost, really, compared to just using something from Microsoft which already works with your current Office applications? Exactly.
Once companies start using SharePoint, Asay worries, there is no way for them to ever ditch Microsoft applications and file formats. SharePoint is tied to those formats, and as the share fills the cost of switching away rises exponentially.
The real problem is not, as Mary Jo Foley reports, Microsoft studies showing SharePoint is cheaper than open source alternatives. The problem is that very few companies are using ECM technology already. It's a compelling opportunity, and it's a totally green field.
Even if Alfresco could get together with its buddies to create a viable alternative, and even if that alternative were already in wide channel distribution, it would be the underdog against Microsoft's marketing power.
That's the problem. Until Microsoft entered the market ECM was going nowhere fast. Now it is going somewhere fast, but where it's going is being determined by Microsoft.
This sort of thing will continue to happen until open source projects learn how to collaborate better, how to combine their efforts to solve big problems, and how to expand their channels. That will take time.
Until then Microsoft will retain its enormous market advantage.
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Talkback
I don't understand how it's cheaper?
Yet, with DotNetNuke it's free, modules are either free or of small value. In order to installa new module it takes seconds as opposed to requiring an IT professional. It's continually maintained by the Open Source community and has been around for years...
Wonder who paid for that "research paper"
Microsoft paid for the research paper
It shows...
So who paid you to misrepresent the research paper?
[i]The real problem is not, as Mary Jo Foley reports, Microsoft studies showing SharePoint is cheaper than open source alternatives.[/i]
Here is what [url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=675] Mary Jo reported [/url] :
[i]SharePoint solutions are more profitable for partners than are open-source alternatives, according to the data.[/i]
How did you get from "Microsoft says 3rd party consulting companies make more money from SharePoint projects" to "SharePoint is cheaper"? If [b]anything[/b] Microsoft plainly quoted the [b]exact opposite[/b] to what you claim they quoted. Microsoft says that SharePoint projects are [b]more[/b] expensive so consultants should familiarize themselves with SharePoint to maximize their profits.
Unbelievable.
Lock-in?
Let's see, companies (most) are using MS Office already
chances are all their docs are in some Office format or another
How does using SharePoint change anything?
Oh, it doesn't
I thought so
A
How SharePoint creates lock-in
Once you use SharePoint, the costs of switching start rising exponentially. Within a year they become impossible. And you can't just shift off SharePoint at that point -- you can't shift off any Microsoft product. You have to pay what Microsoft demands on into eternity.
Or so Matt argues.
That's the problem..
People will whine and complain that all they have is one cable company that charges stupid prices, one telephone company (not cell phone) that charges them stupid prices, a hydro company, a natural gas company yet..
When it comes to computers they don't seem to realize they are locking themselves in. It's like Microsoft is pulling the wool over their eyes without them realizing it.
It's great they don't care today, but when the day comes they are ruled by one company you want to bet the prices start increasing? All of a sudden you'll be billed a "monthly service fee" for bug fixes and a "quarterly fee" for service packs, an of course a "delivery fee" for going over the internet, then let's also not forget probably a "retirement fee" to pay for all the pensions of Microsoft folks, then a "24/7 support fee on top of a call fee", then maybe some other fees for other things other providers do to us to get money out of us.
They do have to get more profits from us somehow you know.
Lock in happens with anything
Assume for a minute you are running Linux, Open Office and some opoen source equivilant of Sharepoint. If you decided to switch to something else, say Windows and Office or Mac and another Suite it is going to be just as hard and just as expensive and time consuming to switch everything as it is to go the other way.
This constant ranting that you are "locked in" to MS is silly because no matter what platform you choose, you are locked into it from a financial and time investment point of view.
That would be software lock-in, not vendor lock-in.
If company X isn't giving me value for money, I can go to Company Y without changing a thing. If Sharepoint isn't giving me value for money I'm stuffed.
There is no equivalency.
You make a convincing argument that OSX is terrible!!
Companies would be extremely foolish to standardize on OSX since it not only locks you into an OS vendor, it [b]also[/b] locks you into a hardware vendor! Double OUCH!!! At least Microsoft let's you pick your own hardware and I say that sarcastically because that is something we [b]should[/b] be able to take for granted! Apple is all about taking away our freedoms.
True. <NT>
Ummm, name them...
Care to name them because I can think of maybe two.
What you're too lazy to google?
Alfresco Solutions Providers:
http://www.alfresco.com/partners/solution/
SugarCRM Partnet Directory:
http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/partners/partnerfinder.html
Other (in the UK):
http://opensource.infoaxon.com/ccm/portal/
http://www.osml.eu/home
5 minutes of searching. That's all I can be bothered with right now.
Thanks for restating the generic problem facing computational evolution!
in regards to the evolution of computing do ya!
Computing can not possible avoid the inevitable
march towards the open recombinant dynamic
that lies at the heart of all sustainable complex
intelligent systems. Computing has little choice
in the long run but to capitulate to the same
path of flexible recombinant blazed by that
stalwart of flexible design known as cellular life.
There is room however to debate the time
frame and how it might be stretched out by
boat anchors like MicroSoft
Say what?
Wow...
DNA - the ultimate lock in
Lock in? Maybe a little.
They make it more convenient for MS Office but "Lock-in battle" is just a tiny bit overstated.
Oh by the way, this is all BullShat
RTF
ASCII
HTML
Plain Text
XML
and yes, even ODF.
Not much "lock in" there now is there?
So...