Sharepoint analysis

I've been busy these past few days.

I met with a former co-worker who was gracious enough to give me some advice and some listening time. He is working as an independent contractor and doing a lot of work with Sharepoint. He recommended that I build skills for it. It is a reasonable course, and one I had not considered. Sharepoint is rather popular and I had used it at UPS. Learning Sharepoint will be a challenge: it runs only on Microsoft Windows, and you need at least two computers: one for the server and the second for the client. The server piece runs on Windows Server, so you must have the "server" flavor of Windows: Windows Server 2003 for now, although Windows Server 2008 is out. (But does Sharepoint run on it?)

Configuring an environment for Sharepoint would require, at minimum: A PC running Windows Server, the Sharepoint server, MS SQL Server, and MS IIS; and another PC running Windows (probably Windows Vista) and Windows Internet Explorer. Even with the magic of virtual machines I would need to acquire hardware and software. At least one PC to host the virtual machines, the virtual PC software (probably VMware), and the licenses for Windows Server, Windows Vista, Sharepoint, and MS SQL Server. (IIS and IE are available at no charge.) Not a small outlay. It could probably be reduced by purchasing an MSDN subscription; the individual pieces are probably more expensive. Will think about this before jumping into it.

In other news, I have two interviews this week: one today and one tomorrow. The former is with a staffing company; they have a position in mind. The second is with a hiring company in Columbia. The second position sounds more challenging, the first has the better commute. But I won't worry about that choice until I pass the interviews.