SharePoint Portal Server 2001 – Quirky but good

Introduction

I really like SharePoint Portal 2001, and I am so pleased that Microsoft has a new version SharePoint Portal 2003 which will work with Windows Server 2003.  All products have their quirks, but I have to say that SharePoint has more than most. 

Despite some criticisms, I do think SharePoint is a wonderful concept of document management.  In fact I use SharePoint to manage my own documents, and you cannot say fairer than that!

Quirky versions

SharePoint Portal Server 2001 works fine on Windows 2000, but not at all on Server 2003.  Perhaps I have been spoilt, because as a rule Microsoft go for backwards compatibility, e.g. Exchange 5.5 will run on NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Server 2003. 

As a separate problem SharePoint 2001 will only work with the Standard version of Exchange 2000.  This is the most disappointing quirk, because that standard version of Exchange only has a 16GB data store, and I always recommend buying Exchange Enterprise because of its unlimited data store.

Quirky IIS

Take IIS, if you navigate to the console you find lots of red dots.  At face value this is alarming, but research shows this is just a ‘feature’ of the start up sequence of Portal Server, SMTP.  The fact seems to be SharePoint runs fine with these red ‘error’ dots.  However if, like me, you find them offensive, simply start and stop the web site (default) and press F5 (Function Key five) – all the red dots will disappear!

Recommendation – Upgrade or Buy SharePoint 2003

In August of 2003 SharePoint 2003 was released, it looks like the real deal, Microsoft has corrected these quirks and the product has really come of age with Version 2003

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