vowe dot net :: Testing Groove 3.0 beta, part 1

Testing Groove 3.0 beta, part 1

by Volker Weber

Today I have finally gotten around to re-install Windows on Charlie, the Stinkpad. This time I decided to put some of the Microsoft boxes that had been sitting around for a while to good use. So on went XP, Office 2003, a whole lot of fixes, and finally the beta of Groove 3.0.

Things have changed considerably. The program no longer tries to create it's own UI, but rather blends in nicely with the GUI. If the folks in Beverly would decide to drop the green logo completely from the UI it would be even nicer. What you see here is the standard Launchpad that loads considerably faster than Groove Workspace did. It is still eating up 35 meg of RAM when idle, but at least it does not seem to slow down the machine at all.

I have not really done a lot of things with it so far, since I have been warned to not use it for important data — hey, all the data I share is important to me — but I have noticed a few things in the settings that once again show me how firm Groove is in MS territory:

It also has a new Sharing page where you can tell it to share the contents of My Documents, My Music or My Photos as well as the Internet Explorer favorites between your computers. Of course you need to install Groove on all of them.

When I installed the software it needed activation. From what I see for the trial version on that activation page, it looks as if the days of a few preview version are numbered. From what I can say today there will be a restriction to 3 spaces and 50 records in the form tool immediately. And 60 days later all other meaningful functions stop working. It sounds like a reasonable trial period, after which Groove Networks needs your money.

One of the things that put me off in 2.5 are still there in 3.0. For instance the continous communication without me having any idea what the product is telling which receiver:

Miscellaneous Communications. 8 kb every few seconds. What's going on here?

2004-04-07 :: email :: twitter :: facebook :: google+

Comments

NSA is listening :-)

Thorsten Ebers, 2004-04-07 08:15

Seems like you need to update your "Charlie" page...
The statements "This machine seems to be the workhorse in the corporate world in the more expensive category" and "doing most of the work with the T series" most likely need an update, don't they? ;-)

Ragnar Schierholz, 2004-04-07 11:34

Well, it's about time :)

1. You're complaining about 572 pixels worth of branding? Sheesh.

2. I find the extensive "miscellaneous communication" a bit annoying, myself... Often, a large chunk of that involves the downloading of spaces from other computers. Also lumps in stuff related to "awareness". Regardless, it's NOT going to the NSA, I assure you. :)

3. You've GOT to try the new File Sharing Workspaces, aka "GFS" (Pronounced JEEF-us - rhymes with that guy in the new Mel Gibson movie). I'd love to hear your thoughts on that...

Jeff Chausse, 2004-04-07 16:37

Ad 1.

Not really complaining. I find it unusual that somebody squeezes an icon on the menu bar. It does not even do anything. It just sits there as a distraction.

Ad 2.

I will have to take your word for it. :-) But this is actually quite a lot of stuff going upstream if you are on a metered GPRS connection with something like 19 cents per 10 kB.

Ad 3.

Will do so. Can you send me your vcard? I currently have no one who wants to give Groove another try.

Volker Weber, 2004-04-07 19:10

Oh, I'd love to give it a spin. But with my Windows machine out of order and me being on the move and thus having no time to fix that particular computer, I guess I'm out of that game at least until the end of April.

Stefan Rubner, 2004-04-07 19:21

Hi there,

The icon actually does have a purpose aside from branding: it spins (like IE's icon) when the UI thread is busy.

Enjoy, Ulli

Ulli Mueller, 2004-04-07 20:50

Got 3.0 Beta running in a Virtual PC sandbox, send me your Groove 3.0 Beta id, can try...
;-) stw

Stephan H. Wissel, 2004-04-09 16:05