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Page 2 of 3 Out of the box, the SharePoint database is hidden and cannot be connected to by TCP/IP. You have to put work in it to enable remote connectivity (even if your tools are on the same computer as the database) and to prohibit the instance being invisible.
You could argue these two options minimise the attack surface of the database – but surely the environments where this is a realistic default configuration are small business environments where the server may be the only one in the company and also serve as its public Internet presence. In such a case it’s perhaps prudent to have such defaults.
Except, the default database creation options also include Full transactional logging and results in massive log files over time – all the more perilous considering they are stored by default on the system disk under the C:\Windows directory. I could go on, but suffice it to say the default options are not optimal and it is hard to justify some as catering to the lowest common denominator when others mandate having a bit of know-how to minimise eventual disaster.
I will say one more thing: SQL Server can be used over MSDE but the way to achieve it is to choose the server farm installation option. It’s not intuitive, especially if your database server is on the same machine as you are loading MOSS – you have to simply disregard the setup option to install everything on the one machine.
Only by electing to go the server farm route you get asked where the database should reside. An argument could potentially be made that you do have a “farm” of servers in such a configuration, namely a SharePoint server and a database server. Yet, I think it reasonable to expect “server farm” in the context given to mean a farm of SharePoint servers, not just servers in general. And, again, you need to select this option even if you are using the one server for both SQL Server and for SharePoint.
Enough of the negatives; the point I want to make clear is that the SharePoint installation process is far from natural and logical. It is a fallacy that Windows Servers inherently lead you through a clean point-and-click set of steps without arcane and intimate understanding required on the part of the user.
Here’s a positive: Just as there are free and open alternatives to many popular software packages – Linux as an alternative to Windows, OpenOffice as an alternative to Microsoft Office, and more – so too there is a free and open source alternative to SharePoint, known as Alfesco.
Actually, Alfresco has been available as a web-based content management and collaboration system for some time but like many products seeing to provide compatibility and equivalent functionality with their proprietary counterparts they can lag behind. Just this month Alfresco made the important announcement that it now has full SharePoint integration. Ironically, this has come about because of Microsoft’s compliance with EU demands that it make public the Microsoft Office interface specifications.
This is a huge win for end users like you and me. Here’s why.
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The Linux distillery 
