Last week, I managed to do my first ever install of Mambo Server on behalf of a charity I'm doing some work for. Remember, this is a Microsoft guy installing LAMP stuff. Had a few minor problems with getting permissions right but overall, the install was simple.
I really think Microsoft is missing a trick here.
Microsoft should be giving a content management system away for free (or at least dirt cheap).
Absolutely! Just something very simple and easy to use which is usually one of Microsoft's strengths. Nothing that competes with Microsoft Content Management Server. They can keep that aimed at the enterprise and sell it for megabucks.
Right now, Open Source CMS's have this category sewn up and they're getting very good. I'm recommending them and helping charities to use them. Frontpage is fine for brochureware but most organisations want to regularly post fresh content on their website and a content management system makes way more sense to use.
Now selecting a content management system is a difficult business. Far too complex unless, as an organisation, you have major IT skills available to you. Of coure they don't and so Frontpage and Dreamweaver get (ab)used. You're certainly not going to spend much money buying a CMS you're not sure about and is difficult to learn.
So this is a great niche that Mambo Server, ezPublish and other simplier Open Source CMS's fill and the vast majority all use PHP and MySQL. These have great community support. These products are bad news for Microsoft since they usually gets hosted on some flavour of Unix. There doesn't seem to be much low-end CMS Windows products. Maybe CityDesk but it's still pricey for organisations like schools and charities. The best Open Source Windows CMS seems to be DotNetNuke.
But if Microsoft gave away a free CMS, that would significantly help drive the demand for Windows based hosting services. It would help drive adoption of ASP .NET and expand the demand for ASP .NET controls. It would sell SQL Server. There's huge potential for all kinds of other integration with Microsoft assests. Anything from Encarta, MapPoint, MSN, Office, etc. It helps to seed the market for future web services.
Is the answer SharePoint? Not really. Both SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services are focused primarily on corporate collaboration scenario's.
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 enables enterprises to deploy an intelligent portal that seamlessly connects users, teams, and knowledge so that people can take advantage of relevant information across business processes to help them work more efficiently.
Maybe you could use it but it's really meant for internal teams. I've noticed some ISP's offering it. Doesn't feel like the right solution to me.
No, I contend there would be great value in Microsoft offering an easy to use, lightweight and cheap content management system. It would be strategically important for Microsoft and tremendous value for small organisations struggling to get their information up on the Internet.