Groove Alternative

March 13, 2006 12:26 PM

I need an alternative to Groove.

I'm looking for an alternative to Groove for my company, but am running in dead ends. We've just purchased a file server and would like to transfer all our content out of Groove and onto this shared drive. We would keep Groove and simply use File Sharing workspaces, except that you can not "Send As Link" like you can with a Standard Workspace. (For non-Groove users, this feature allows you to send a link to the file via a Groove IM.)

Are there any alternatives out there that would let us maximize our shared drive, and provide a feature like this? Alternatively, has anyone dealt with a similar situation migrating off of Groove and found a resultion that works?

posted by NotMyselfRightNow to technology (8 comments total)

I am unclear what you are trying to do.

Even if you only use File Sharing workspaces, you are still storing all content on all of the members of the workspace's local computers.

(though I guess you can set up the workspaces as "download upon request"?)
posted by gregvr at 1:02 PM on March 13, 2006

Check out FolderShare (which I mention in this thread). It's free and is really easy to use. It has the sharing capabilities that groove does, without all of the HUGE bloat that comes with it. Everyone just synchs a directory.

If you need to have an url to pass around, everyone could map the folder shared directory to a drive letter (ex "X:") and just pass out a link like: file://X:\share\my_file_that_you_should_look_at.doc
posted by freshgroundpepper at 1:08 PM on March 13, 2006

Even if you only use File Sharing workspaces, you are still storing all content on all of the members of the workspace's local computers.

True, but taking up space on the individual machines isn't a concern. We would store content on the server, which would then create the File Sharing space (via a version of Groove sitting on the server with it's own account). But, having them on the file server allows us to backup the content, search it, and manipulate it easier than if it was in a Standard Workspace. It would also improve performance on the individual machines, as Groove tends to be a resource hog when you get tons of Standard Workspaces, as well as additional applications.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:09 PM on March 13, 2006

freshgroundpepper, thanks for that. FolderShare looks like it could be half the solution. I'd be concerned about the "url to pass around" portion of it, however. My users run the gambit of technical ability, and I'd be concerned about adoption of a manual process for that part of it.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:13 PM on March 13, 2006

Microsoft SharePoint? Doesn't it do the same stuff as Groove?
posted by GuyZero at 1:21 PM on March 13, 2006

GuyZero, we had looked at SharePoint once before. There was some dislike of it from Sr. Management who had used it before, and it generally seemed like overkill for what we want to accomplish. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:31 PM on March 13, 2006

The non-techies at our (small) company never had a problem with FolderShare (they actually love it). We didn't send around live links, but just did something like "its under your company share in projects\customer4\planning\SOW.doc". You can't click the link, but everyone knows where it is and finds it easy to use.

Depending on your company, you could just mandate that everyone have the foldershare on their C: drive at somethign like "c:\share", so that rather than having everyone do a manual mapping of a drive, everyone has it in the same place for mailing links around.
posted by freshgroundpepper at 11:37 PM on March 13, 2006

The non-techies at our (small) company never had a problem with FolderShare (they actually love it). We didn't send around live links, but just did something like "its under your company share in projects\customer4\planning\SOW.doc". You can't click the link, but everyone knows where it is and finds it easy to use.

freshgroundpepper, it's funny. I can look at that and tell you that it should work. I can turn to others (you!) and have them say, "that should work." It's amazingly simple and easy to do, and yet I can't get people to do it here. They just consider it an obstacle that can't be overcome. (Aargh!)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:27 AM on March 14, 2006