Non-cloud Google docs
November 19, 2015 7:36 AM Subscribe
What's a good non-cloud collaborative software alternative to Google docs?
Assuming zero contact with the greater internet/cloud, what's a good collaborative word (bonus points for excel)-type software that can be hosted entirely on internal servers?
Assuming zero contact with the greater internet/cloud, what's a good collaborative word (bonus points for excel)-type software that can be hosted entirely on internal servers?
SharePoint is definitely the answer to this question. This might sound self-serving since I do a lot of SharePoint and SharePoint related things for my day job but you will likely need real, SharePoint trained administrators and governance type folks to keep this software running properly on premise. It is a complicated beast with lots of options and places lots of expectations on the admin staff. It really is a swiss army knife of tools which means people can use it in all sorts of weird and wonderful (and not so wonderful ways).
Having good governance type people I mention above is how you can be successful with SharePoint and limit yourself to only using the apparently small subset of features you need for your business needs. When and if you decided to branch out to use more features or choose to customize things, be sure to use staff that is properly trained and experienced. The software makes it so easy to do some things that appear simple but have bad consequences later that it is easy to shoot yourself in the foot. This is so common place that it will be easy for you to find people who have had odinsdream's experience.
posted by mmascolino at 8:21 AM on November 19, 2015
Having good governance type people I mention above is how you can be successful with SharePoint and limit yourself to only using the apparently small subset of features you need for your business needs. When and if you decided to branch out to use more features or choose to customize things, be sure to use staff that is properly trained and experienced. The software makes it so easy to do some things that appear simple but have bad consequences later that it is easy to shoot yourself in the foot. This is so common place that it will be easy for you to find people who have had odinsdream's experience.
posted by mmascolino at 8:21 AM on November 19, 2015
HackPad is a fork of EtherPad with some nice extra features.
posted by miyabo at 9:33 AM on November 19, 2015
posted by miyabo at 9:33 AM on November 19, 2015
Most of SharePoint works really badly if you aren't a 100% Windows shop. No amount of virtuoso admin work can fix this.
posted by scruss at 11:18 AM on November 19, 2015
posted by scruss at 11:18 AM on November 19, 2015
SharePoint is completely fine. It's very easy to use for business folks, and has a lot of nice, basic, built-in functionality.
It is also expensive and heavy on back-end administration and server requirements, and hard to develop for as a programmer, but that's not something you'll really see as a business user. However, it is absolutely a corporate and not a personal solution. No non-crazy person would setup an on-premise SharePoint solution for one person.
You do need Microsoft Active Directory to make Sharepoint work well, but I don't agree that you need to be a 100% Windows shop. You can browse SharePoint on OSX or Linux and save, edit and re-upload documents on either. That isn't a great editing experience, but you can also edit SharePoint documents directly on a Mac with Mavericks or above and Office 2016.
posted by cnc at 12:24 PM on November 19, 2015
It is also expensive and heavy on back-end administration and server requirements, and hard to develop for as a programmer, but that's not something you'll really see as a business user. However, it is absolutely a corporate and not a personal solution. No non-crazy person would setup an on-premise SharePoint solution for one person.
You do need Microsoft Active Directory to make Sharepoint work well, but I don't agree that you need to be a 100% Windows shop. You can browse SharePoint on OSX or Linux and save, edit and re-upload documents on either. That isn't a great editing experience, but you can also edit SharePoint documents directly on a Mac with Mavericks or above and Office 2016.
posted by cnc at 12:24 PM on November 19, 2015
> You can browse SharePoint on OSX
Through a browser, yes, but there's no ability to open a SharePoint directory as a shared drive or system directory like there is on Windows under OS X or Linux. You're stuck with the awful Microsoft Document Connection on OS X (not updated since Office 2011, woo), and the long-promised OneDrive for Business (= SharePoint client for Mac) has been promised for over a year and hasn't delivered.
posted by scruss at 3:23 PM on November 19, 2015
Through a browser, yes, but there's no ability to open a SharePoint directory as a shared drive or system directory like there is on Windows under OS X or Linux. You're stuck with the awful Microsoft Document Connection on OS X (not updated since Office 2011, woo), and the long-promised OneDrive for Business (= SharePoint client for Mac) has been promised for over a year and hasn't delivered.
posted by scruss at 3:23 PM on November 19, 2015
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posted by mce at 7:50 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]