SharePoint VMWare Image Improvements

Running SharePoint Server 2010 on VMWare on laptops with 4GB of memory but without a solid state drive can still be sluggish if all the service applications are running.

After many SharePoint 2010 classes this year, we’ve concluded that the following services were worth turning off as they freed up a lot of memory used in SharePoint and made lab experience much better for our students.

  • Usage and Health
  • Web Analytics
  • Access Services
  • Word Automation
  • Performance Point

It’s simple to turn the services back on when necessary, but for most part they are not necessary to learn the core SharePoint functionality.

Microsoft is Killing Kin

I am not surprised. I have a friend that works on Kin team and he told that they got the marketing and training of Verizon reps all wrong. They missed their sales targets considerably. Also this shows how difficult the entry into this consumer phone market is at this time. That’s why Microsoft’s best bet is the enterprise.

Microsoft marketing in general should really take some lessons from Apple. For example, SharePoint materials/main website could be so much simpler. I know that SharePoint offers a lot and it’s difficult to describe everything. That’s why it’s better to describe less.

Also, I recently saw a leaked presentation on Windows 8 and it was fifteen slides long. Do you really need 15 slides to describe something that can be done in at most five?

  • Fast start up time
  • Facial recognition/automatic login
  • Ability to use external Displays (TVs) easily
  • USB 3.0 support
  • Fast switch between accounts

I promise that my next post is going to be technical. :)

SharePoint Integration Looks Promising on Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 will have some interesting integration with SharePoint. The demo below focuses on Word. I would be curious to see exactly how InfoPath integration works because it is going be a killer app for business use. Instead of writing custom apps, business users will be able to create forms linked to SharePoint and collect data via mobile devices (probably offline too).

I am not sure that Windows Phone 7 will take off on the consumer side right away (too much competition), but for business, it’s going to make a case.

They just need to get rid of white and blue text on the black background. Google has proved that black text on white background works better.