You can download a MOSS eval license at Microsoft's Web site. We, on the other hand, mentioned our Honolulu test lab and 24 hours later a couple of SharePoint product team members were knocking on the door wearing big grins and suntan lotion on their shockingly pale noses and clutching a set of MOSS Enterprise install disks. (We heard later that one of the Microsoft corporate jets temporarily went missing around this time, but so far authorities have been unable to establish a connection.)

The Bottom Line Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Microsoft, microsoft.com Good  7.4 criteria score weight Ease-of-use 8 20% Features 8 20% Scalability 7 20% Management 7 15% Security 7 15% Value 7 10% Cost: Base server license $4,347; Standard client access license $93; Enterprise client license $76 Platforms: Windows Server 2003 Bottom Line: Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a platform that offers amazing new potential to Microsoft Office users, and it does so without loads of new training for IT. However, the platform is so powerful, that administrators will need to be careful when planning architecture and hardware distribution as well as when and in what order they’ll roll out certain features About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

Brian watched the SharePoint install process like a hawk, but it turns out he didn't need to. SharePoint's complexity is in the depth of its feature set, not in the install process. There are only a couple of things to watch out for. First, make sure the server has the .Net Framework 3.0 pre-installed, accent on "pre-." We tried it the other way here in New Jersey because we're slow learners on the east coast -- frustration is the operative word for this mistake.

The next issue is the SharePoint user account process and it'll continue to rear its ugly head as we go along. During the install process, Microsoft recommends logging into the Windows Server using a dedicated SharePoint account; one that's part of the Administrative user group, but not the actual administrator's account for the server. This initial account will be the "owner" account for all SharePoint sites on this box. Other users will still be able to own their particular site(s), but think of this initial account as a master account for the whole site collection.

Once the initial software load is done, SharePoint will run its Product and Technologies Wizard, which does different things depending on whether you initiated a Basic or Advanced MOSS installation. For example, for testing purposes, you're fine with Basic, but Microsoft was careful to point out that only by using an Advanced install can a MOSS server join a multiserver farm. This was not a big deal for a test server, but it is something most organizations will certainly want to plan for in a production environment. After this wizard casts its spell, you'll be able to play with the server's default top-level site (quite boring on its own) and begin organizing the business sites below it.

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It's a site, not an area
If you remember the 15 minutes it took to learn SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you'll remember that the 2003 version referred to different user pages as "areas." It apparently caused too many headaches on both sides of the IT office door, so under the new MOSS we get to refer to them as "sites." This makes more sense to the geeks, though users probably won't care one way or the other. To them, sites tend to show up as tabs in the MOSS user interface, just like what they're used to in applications such as Office 2007. In fact, most of the front-facing SharePoint 2007 UI has been specifically and in some cases painstakingly designed to look as much like Office 2007 and general Windows applications as possible. The downside here is that if you get really customized with SharePoint user sites, you're pretty much forced to use SharePoint Designer since it'll have the UI templates necessary to maintain this look and feel.