Sign in / up

back to article Microsoft melds SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint

Microsoft has released a new SkyDrive Pro client that offers users of Office 365 and SharePoint the chance to store files locally. The application is the heir to the My Site feature from previous incarnations of Office 365. SkyDrive Pro has most of the the same functions as the consumer version of the service, which is one of …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Moeluk

    Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

    Downloading it now...

    Hopefully it's not just another rehash of Groove/Workspace because that was shit...

    All I want for our employees, is something that is as simple to use as dropbox, and that doesn't keep forgetting what sharepoint sites you have access to.

    Here's hoping!!!

    0 0
    1. Moeluk
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

      Oh wait no...it's still utterly shit...

      "we cannot sync this library because it is too large"

      Well thanks microsoft, thanks a fucking bunch.

      4 0
      1. AndrueC Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Joke

        Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

        Well thanks microsoft, thanks a fucking bunch.

        So a fairly typical SharePoint experience then?

        5 0
        1. Moeluk
          Reply Icon
          FAIL

          Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

          A completely typical Sharepoint Experience.

          Isn't there some sort of Trading Standards Act, that would allow me to claim the last 18 months O365 fees back for our company...because i'm sorry but a large percentage of this MS software does NOT do what it says on the tin....

          Hell just yesterday I discovered a shit storm had been unleashed because the box in Dynamics labelled 'Search inactive contacts', does not search inactive contacts...it searches active contacts...

          3 0
        2. Phoenix50
          Reply Icon
          Stop

          Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

          If you think that's a typical SharePoint experience - you're doing it wrong.

          1 1
          1. AndrueC Silver badge
            Reply Icon
            Meh

            Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

            If you think that's a typical SharePoint experience - you're doing it wrong.

            Oh I don't know - it has its moments. I also have to contend with the back-end. Accessing the DBs all by myself and the rather hideous import/export functionality. As usual there's little standardisation between things like column names and XML element names.

            In use - meh. It's okay I suppose. Better than Lotus Notes at any rate (looking back to how it was in the late 90s). Still - SharePoint can be confusing sometimes. The menu system seems designed to confuse especially for admins. Menus to the left of me, menus to the right of me, menus above me. Then you can also have drop down selectors. I'd like to think there was some logic underpinning it all but I've not found it yet. Perhaps it's because as a software developer I'm approaching it from the direction.

            1 0
    2. Roger Greenwood
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yaaaayyyyyyyyy

      "simple to use as dropbox"

      or like google drive?

      1 0
  2. Tim 11

    It can't get any worse...

    There already is a SkyDrive pro client which is part of office 2013 and it's way worse than SharePoint workspace 2010. I'll be trying the new version as soon as i've managed the 250MB download on my weedy ADSL connection.

    Interesting to here other people here talking about their experiences sharepoint and groove. It's so un-finished as a whole, I had previously assumed I was the only person actually trying to use it.

    0 0
    1. Moeluk
      Reply Icon
      IT Angle

      Re: It can't get any worse...

      Tim, I suspect it's the exact same piece of software, just on general release...

      I genuinely don't get how something can be so flawed as an experience...my users want to use the computer like they always have, browsing like they used to browse the network share.

      They don't want to be going into web interfaces to get at a file they want to print...it's just absolutely stupid.. we have no use for any of sharepoints other functionaility...it's there to store documents..thats all we want it to do! It's just absolutely crazy.

      1 0
      1. Tim 11
        Reply Icon

        Re: It can't get any worse...

        @Moeluk I think you're right. apart from the fact that I now have SkyDrive pro listed in the add/remove programs, I can see no difference at all.

        In case anyone is thinking of using SkyDrive pro in conjunction with SharePoint, here's an example of how braindead it is: Drag a file from SkyDrive pro to your desktop note that the mouse cursor is "move" not "copy". You have just permanently deleted it from SharePoint. No Warning or confirmation message. Of course you can drag it back but you have lost the version history unless you want to restore your whole SharePoint server from a backup.

        2 0
  3. Matto in AUS
    Unhappy

    Love the idea...

    ...hate the execution.

    Dropbox: I save a file to my local dropbox folder, and it saves instantly to disk. Dropbox then works on asynchronously syncing it up to the dropbox cloud. My application saves/closes instantly, if I don't have network it just updates next time. Version conflicts are handled by the cloud, by simply renaming documents when there's a collision. If I'm running late I can save the file instantly, close the laptop and then be on my way.

    SkyDrive / SDP: I save a file to my local SD folder, and the skydrive client kicks in and tries to connect to the sharepoint instance behind it.

    If it can connect, then it uploads the document directly into the sharepoint library - this is not an async operation, it takes a long time for a big document over a bad WAN link and completely locks up the application while I'm waiting. I need to sit there and wait for it to finish, which makes me even later (because I'm always running late).

    If I'm not connected to a network, it takes a while to figure that out while the "connecting to sharepoint site..." dialog scrolls around and around. Eventually it realises it can't connect. It either chucks a wobbly at this point and breaks, or saves the file locally (FINALLY! HUZZAH!). However it then hits sync errors when it tries to do the background sync later. I have 3 folders now in my (normal) SkyDrive folder that are marked with Xs and simply cannot be made to sync. It tells me to open the document in Word to review the sync errors and remediate. I do that, and same thing happens. I just want it to sync the files, but it refuses to. I don't want to have to go back into Word to remediate version control issues.

    SkyDrive Pro would solve MANY operational problems for us in the firm. I'm a big believer in what it could do, if it could be made to work consistently. But if I still can't figure it out and this is what I do for a living, what hope do the 600-other non-IT staff have? Maybe (as will no doubt be pointed out ) I'm just bad at my job, but when the alternatives Just Work(tm), is wanting the same for this potentially excellent product too much?

    Cheers,

    Matto :)

    3 0
  4. Frances Banana
    IT Angle

    Share-scare

    @Matto

    Sadly, the alternatives seem to be just working. I do not want to blindly diss MS products, but often it looks like a few bean counters just got into the FIAT factory mode and said: "oh yeah, this cloud - connect sharepoint, and then the mail thing - yes! Put there and a cloud is ready - no need to spend $ on dev! :D". But hellyeah, I am biased.

    I am working with one researcher at a research institution - out there they are all MS and DropBox is banned due to some law issues. Guess what they are silently using for storing data in the cloud?

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like