An open source alternative to SharePoint: Cheaper and better

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foobar

186 posts

Master Geek

#24949 7-Aug-2008 17:11

Hello!

Just thought I point out that there is an open source alternative to SharePoint, which is not only cheaper, but also better:

It can hold more documents, and it is open, which means that you won't be locked in by the vendor.

The system is from a company called Alfresco. More information here.

ChanK

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Trusted

#155761 11-Aug-2008 01:41

Just my 2 cents on the whole "Open Source" is better than "M$$$$$$"
End of the day each has it's own merits and downfalls and Technology will never be able to solve any of the issues that Alfresco or SharePoint claims that they can provide solutions to.

If you take each one of the six areas that SharePoint claims to address in an organisation what most people always miss out is that they will never ever be able to use one technology as the be all and end all for everything. So Alfresco claiming that it can do everything SharePoint does not carry any merit what so ever. And seriously what is Alfresco claiming it's going to solve? End of the day it's another Technology claim.

Just claiming that Alfresco is better than SharePoint is like saying Solaris is better than Windows.

have a read of this article and hopefully you'll understand that technology is really not the point when it comes to SharePoint or whatever projects.

http://www.cleverworkarounds.com/2008/04/11/why-do-sharepoint-projects-fail-part-1/

:-)

Cheers and Peace

Chandima
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.chandima.net/Blog/

foobar

186 posts

Master Geek

#155762 11-Aug-2008 05:51

Yes, you raise very good points. I absolutely agree: A technology solution alone does not a successful project make.

My point was: There is a whole forum here dedicated to that technology solution (SharePoint), so I thought that I point out the presence of an open-source alternative, which claims to be able to match SharePoint - purely technically - feature for feature, and even be able to do more in some respects. That's where the "better" part came from. I would then also claim that with all else being equal, open source is always preferrable. See here for why that is the case.

Of course, as you rightly point out, no technical merit of a product guarantees the success of the overall project.