Isn't OneDrive/Sharepiont the exact OPPOSITE of a shared drive?

https://lemmy.world/post/5512364

Isn't OneDrive/Sharepiont the exact OPPOSITE of a shared drive? - Lemmy.world

Background: - At work we use MS Office, because who doesn’t. We used to have a central file server with lots of well sorted directories. - Then Corporate decided to ditch that, everything must move into OneDrive so there’s always a Data Owner. - The local boss had to move everything from the network share into his own OneDrive, and then share, with each of us, the folders that were relevant to each of us. - This sounds like distributed storage, which is probably smart in some way. In reality, it’s shit. Everything is now a link to “corporateName.sharepoint.com [http://corporateName.sharepoint.com]” in the browser, and it’s a hassle to find that in the file explorer. Worse, I have no idea what’s where. Some people share some stuff and somehow it ends up in my OneDrive, but what’s the context of it? This seems so wrong to me. Am I just not “getting” it??

Your boss did this a stupid way. They should have created a SharePoint site, maybe a few extra document libraries within that site, and have the files in there. Then added people as members to the site, maybe lock down a few of the document libraries/folders as required to specific people.

Then for ease of use people can open the libraries and click the sync button. Although if you have too many it’ll slow down/break.

OneDrive/SharePoint is not a drop in replacement for a file server, and those honestly still find their use, but a lot of places with a bit of re-structuring can work just as well if not better through SharePoint . Especially if they put in the effort to start using other SharePoint features.

Can I view sharepoint in the file explorer, or is that only in the browser?

The sharepoint itself - browser only

The document libraries - there is a “sync” button you can press to get them into the OneDrive client on your PC, and therefore into file explorer. (It’s also possible for admins to automate this)