On Friday I presented at Cobweb’s Connected Solutions event, hosted at Microsoft in London Victoria. The audience was made up of Cobweb’s existing customers and those interested in finding out more about our services, and what we can do. During the sessions, I was asked a few times about compatibility of Mac and Linux with SharePoint, and wanted to share my response:
Historically, SharePoint has not easily combined with Firefox, Safari or other browsers – even when run on a Windows platform – and has diminished its use on those platforms. Users of SharePoint 2, Windows SharePoint Services (WSS3) or Office SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) with non-IE browsers – for example Firefox – may have experienced this incompatibility in the form of occasional incorrectly formatted, “mashed” or out-of-position content. I am happy to say that developments to address this in SharePoint 3 have been further enhanced in SharePoint 2010.
Notable improvements to Apple Mac and Linux experience include support of non-IE browsers in SharePoint 2010 and some bespoke code now exists such as “Document Connection for Mac” (within Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac SP2+) making it easier to work with files on SharePoint sites. Even if you’re on a Windows platform and prefer Firefox or Safari, you will no longer (or at very worst, hardly ever) need to switch browsers to use all features; especially if your design accommodates a mixed client base.
While this is great, there is a notable exclusion of SharePoint 2010 Workspace (an offline and collaborative tool - read more here) though it is reported that Microsoft are currently developing a Mac-specific tool.
Specifically regarding browsers, Microsoft have written SharePoint 2010 for standards-based browsers (XHTML 1.0 compliant) which includes Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Safari 3.x+ and Firefox 3.x. These browsers running on Windows Operating Systems are compatible, and enjoy an ‘increased level’ of compatibility on non-Windows Operating Systems. These links detail the official support:
SharePoint 2010 Server - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526(office.14).aspx
SharePoint 2010 Foundation - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288142(office.14).aspx
Office SharePoint 2007 Server - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526.aspx
Windows SharePoint Services - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288142.aspx
Finally, to put some of my assertions to the test, I have successfully been able to carry out all elements of my SharePoint 2010 demo (as given at the Connected Solutions event) on both Firefox (3.6.3) and Safari (4.0.5) running from a Windows Vista client.
In summary, the support for Mac and Linux is not 100%, but getting closer and – depending on your content – you may never even notice.
Excellent points and great post! Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts and the post for all of our readers!
Posted by: jashim uddin | June 26, 2010 at 09:04 AM