Have You Lost Your Mind?
OK, so by now, most readers, especially those who know me or are regular readers of this blog, probably wonders if I’ve gone complete over the edge. Why would I bash the product I spend so much time using? Are all my previous posts about how cool SharePoint can be just rubbish? Did I wake up an see the Linux light at the end of the very long Microsoft tunnel?
To answer those questions, I would like to quote an ancient Chinese saying, rumored to be one of the first responses ever to a proposal. Hell no!
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve said quite a lot of things about SharePoint that may lead you to think I hate SharePoint. I don’t. Quite the contrary, I love SharePoint. Yeah, it sucks, but so does my wife, and I’ve married her twice. Thankfully, she doesn’t read ancient Chinese.
So what’s going on here? Why the attitude? Well, it’s really very simple. SharePoint does suck. It does suck on the topics I’ve mentioned. Yes, if you don’t set up security properly, and that’s far from easy, SharePoint isn’t secure. I did ‘hack’ Microsoft’s own SharePoint security by clicking on a link posted in public and entering my LiveID. Yes, the workflow engine has the limitations I mentioned. Yes, blogging in SharePoint isn’t really a viable option if blogging is an important thing for you, and it sure as hell sucks if it’s the only thing you want out of your software package.
I’ve focused on the bad stuff in the previous three posts, and these are really bad things. And I also meant that there are a lot of other areas too, such as documentation, validation, compliance, artificial limitations, in addition to the areas I explicitly mentioned.
However, SharePoint excels in far more areas than the areas in which it completely sucks. How much is ‘far more’? To put this in a cosmic scope, let’s say that the suckage of SharePoint equals the size of the… I don’t know… Something huge… The Sun! As in the celestial body, not the newspaper. That’s pretty huge, right?
OK, let me quickly take 2 minutes and 39 seconds of your life, and show you one of the coolest videos I know.
SharePoint coolness is the size of the Pistol star. Yes, I know, it’s nothing compared to the biggest stars, but then again, the SharePoint team needs something for which to strive.
So, in the interest of cosmic balance, since we’re on that topic, I’m going to post a series on some of the true beauty of SharePoint. I’ll focus on the topics that I find to be most important to me, just like I focused the suckage series on the topics that most annoyed me. I’ll show you why I think that SharePoint as a platform is not only the best platform available, because that really isn’t saying much, but also why it is a good platform for future development, on which you can and should build your organizational information infrastructure.
To answer the question, once and for all, of whether I hate SharePoint, let me put it this way: SharePoint, will you marry me?
(answered with a roar of ancient Chinese, I’d guess)
.b
NOTE: This article is part of a series. Make sure you read the entire series to get the full picture, especially the thrilling conclusion in Part 4.
People who just get half the picture are, well, half-witted.
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I knew this would come …
Very nice articles. Exactly my points of view with SharePoint.
I really don't like the "all is perfect in Sharepoint"-(MVP)-guys! So thanks for that open-minded writing …
Greetings
Eric
Hi Bjorn,
Bit dissappointed in the punchline on this blog series, too obvious for me. Sorry. Anybody who has ever worked on SharePoint, including the MVPs know SharePoint has some bits, quite a few actually, which are just crap, but overall, the good outweighs the bad. I don't think you or me are unique in that respect.
I still think your UI book is awesome though!
Keep up the blogging, and here's a link to my response to this blog article
Nice try to be politically correct after saying in 3 pages it sucks that somehow there's some sort of glimmer of hope or good with it..because it's a complete fail. After about x years the company will end up ditching it or recoding what they did in SharePoint straight up in .NET after they realized they have built a huge pile of shit inside SharePoint.
(which is 100% correct. SHAREPOINT SUCKS, THE API SUCKS, EVERYTHING ABOUT IT SUCKS…I'VE BEEN THERE)
This was just a fantastic series of articles… sorry that I only just found it. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for writing them and also for writing the best book on SharePoint I’ve read. Ultimately though, the suckage was too much for me. There’s a lot of money to be made working with SP, but I want to enjoy my work. I totally respect you for wanting to go above and beyond and plumb the depths of the miserable maze that is SharePoint. I don’t personally have that kind of patience, and using that product makes me feel like Microsoft is having their way with me. But keep on fighting the good fight. You rock!
Was a good article to read, and I guess you have to put in this “cute” little ending to appease the SharePoint lovers (aka mental patients) out there, but you and I both know the truth.
It sucks big time.
I can mention way to many times I’ve been caught in hot water with SharePoint, and Although 2010 is a bit more agreeable, its not the light at the end of the tunnel.
Terrible product , not worthy to be called a platform!
I have ur Book on sharepoint 2007 and that was by far the best book on sharepoint…not sure whether u are planning to do the same for 2010…I read ur articles on sharepoint magazine also and you are an excellent writer.Regarding Sharepoint ..well it has both good and bad points but as far as i am concerned I can forget the bad points and live with the quick response solution it provided.
Thanks and you rock man.