what is groove??

[Keith G Hicks]

I'm still doing all my development work using office 2003. I'm waiting for
2010 to come out this summer. But I was reading a little bit about Groove on
the 2007 site and it appears to be similar to VS Source Safe but maybe more
features like some sort of net meeting tool. Is that the case or am I way
off?

Thanks,

Keith

 

[Gregg Johnston [MSFT]]

Hi Keith,

Here is a general overview:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/HA101656331033.aspx

Let me know if you have any specific questions on this.

Gregg

 

[Keith G Hicks]

Thanks Greg. I had read over that page before I posted my question and found
it pretty useless. It's written by some PR person to sound nice and fluffy
but doesn't really explain at all what the program does. If you already know
Groove I'm sure it makes sense and your mind will fill in the blanks but if
you know nothing about it, it doesn't tell you anything. Microsoft and other
big companies have a huge problem with this sort of thing. They say a lot
without saying much of anything. I guess I'm trying to find out like I said
below if this is also used for version control. It sort of implies that but
doesn't say so clearly.

Keith

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Keith -

Basically Groove is a rich client Windows application that allowed the
creation of shared workspaces that are stored on each users PC. A workspace
could contain a number of tools - shared files, discussion, a forms design
tool - as well as chat and a member status notification area. There was a
server infrastructure run by Groove Networks and major customers that mostly
made sure updates and messages were delivered to all workspace members.

The benefits of Groove over web based systems were that:

* you didn't need a permanent internet connection to work with it
* it required much less bandwidth (in theory, anyway)
* it was secure by design,
* it was highly customisable by the end user,
* You could establish workspaces with people from lots of organisations very
quickly.

Over time, the bandwidth advantage has been eroded, large number of people
have shown that they really don't care about security, and the most
significant customisation features have been removed.

Groove 2007 is still a good, if no longer visionary, product. Its direct
successor, SharePoint Workspace, offers the same benefits but has nothing new
for anyone who isn't using it with SharePoint.