Forget file formats. The battle is Sharepoint

People are agog that Microsoft has announced support for Open Document Format (ODF), but I'm not sure why. This was a foregone conclusion once Microsoft figured out how to move lock-in above the file level to the content network.

In other words, to Sharepoint.

Microsoft has been hell-bent on getting enterprises to dump content into its proprietary Sharepoint repository, calling it the next Windows operating system. I call it the future of Microsoft lock-in.

Microsoft doesn't need to zealously guard file formats anymore. It already owns the next few decades of lock-in, and many enterprises are willy-nilly dumping their content into Microsoft's proprietary repository at a pace and in a manner that is as potentially destructive for those enterprises as it is beneficial to Microsoft's income.

Microsoft has done well in creating a comparatively easy to use and deploy front-end for Sharepoint, which is far better than the antiquated systems from Documentum, FileNet, Interwoven, etc. But if Microsoft really wants to do its customers a favor, it will open up its repository to make it as easy to get content out of the repository as it is to get it into the repository.

That's what would help customers. Is Microsoft interested?

Disclosure: I work for Alfresco, an open-source alternative to Microsoft Sharepoint.

[kojacked]

Oh, Lord! What next? A "news" blog from someone at Symantec talking trash about McAffee's products? That's about as worthless as this tripe. Yet another blog where substituting "Microsoft" for the competition, "Alfresco", would have just as much meaning. Thanks for wasting our time Matt.

[crb0r]

I'm genuinely interested (and haven't had the time to do the research myself) - how much lock-in does Sharepoint really have? I understand the data is kept in SQL Server - is the schema public, or has it been reverse-engineered? Are the specifications published under Microsoft's new "openness initiative" of use to competitors such as Alfresco? Ignoring the implications to the GPL for a second, could Alfresco buy a patent license, and offer a version that connected to Sharepoint using these protocols, or even better, implement a connector using the specs without violating any of Microsoft's patents?

[weharc]

I'd like to know what Matt thinks is lock in. SharePoint has several options for getting content out: 1) Use the web services that are provided out of the box. 2) Use the object model API and write three lines of code to get the file out (see http://blah.winsmarts.com/2008-5-CNET_-_please_do_your_research_before_opening_your_big_mouth.aspx)
3) Create a linked table with Access (no code solution, might be more applicable to List based data than binary attachments). So based on this, this whole post looks like typical FUD from someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

[hassanibraheem]

This deserves some research.
Please fix the lwn.net and infoworld.com links.

[aravindlive]

Documents stored inside SharePoint can be recovered / retrieved by using Sharepoint object model.

1. Refer the Sharepoint object model library in a project ,
2. Write a console application and replace siteURL string with your SharePoint site url
3. At the end of execution of third line you will get the document at byte array

SPWeb web = new SPSite(siteURL).OpenWeb();
SPDocumentLibrary dox = web.Lists["Documents"] as SPDocumentLibrary;
byte[] fileBytes = dox.Items[0].File.OpenBinary();

Above lines may be too technical for a user but it's really an easy job to recover.

[jalvarado77]

Matt, you are full of garbage! Please take a class in Sharepoint and learn it before you make such ignorant remarks. Come on, you are loosing credibility here.