Newbie needs software purchase advice

[fig000]

Hi,

I used sharepoint for a while back in the 2004 but would like to
expand my .net activities to use it. We have a version at work on a
server and in looking at the central administration module I found the
message:

Your SharePoint Products and Technologies deployment is not yet
complete.

I am told that this was a free version (not sure how that's possible)
purchased at least two or three years back and I'm not sure if it's
capable of workflow, webparts etc. I was able to get to the 3.0
central administation module so I figure I must have logged in to the
server with the admin login and password. But I can't seem to find the
version number.

I have found the .net framework 2 and 3 on the server, as well as
sharepoint services 3.0. Also there is Office 2003 web components (all
of this in the add or remove programs section of control panel). I see
no mention of windows server 2003 either in the start menu or control
panel and I've gotten the impression that this is necessary to run
sharepoint

All in all I'm confused. I would to either make this site fully
functional enough to convince my company to buy an up to date version
with full capabilities. If this isn't possible and this might not be a
full version (which is what has been implied) then I was hoping to at
least set up a version on my laptop to demonstrate the capabilities to
my managers. I have a vista laptop at home (Home premium) and and xp
one at work. Is there a low cost way of running sharepoint 2007 on a
single license computer just for demonstration purposes? I downloaded
the bamboo vista helper software but, with all of my confusion about
what I need to run sharepoint, I wasn't sure how I could integrate it
or if the fact that I have vista home might hamper my running
sharepoint.

In addition I tried to create a workflow project on my work (xp)
laptop using vs2008 and found that I was missing the correct dlls. I
found an article about moving these dlls from the gac on the
sharepoint server we have but was not able to copy them. It makes me
wonder what other template type dlls I might be missing from my work
laptop.

It occurs to me I need an integrated environment. I realize if I had
a chance to start with a virgin server and purchase the right
components it would probably be easier to figure all this out but I'm
dealing with a number of unknowns and an existing structure which I
don't understand.

I'd appreciate any advice as to how I can confirm the capabilities of
the currrent server we have at work. It does seem to have workflow
dlls and some other so maybe I can manage to make to work. Short of
that, I'd like to know how I might create a fully functional
sharepoint site on one of my laptops with a limited license just to
show my supervisors what sharepoint can do.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
fig

[spconsultant]

Here is the difinitive source of version information

http://mindsharpblogs.com/penny/articles/481.aspx

WIndows SharePoint Services (aka WSS) is Free (or No Charge).

SharePoint Server 2007 (aka MOSS) is chargeable.

I think .net framework 2 is installed with IIS, while .net 3.5 is a
pre-req
for WSS 3 (at one time you could use 3.0 with some WWF patches).
WSS has built in support for workflows using Visual studio. You can
also use SharePoint Desiger to do workflows (although with different
limitations/capabilities)

Without getting in to very sophisticated (and reportedly sometimes
unreliable workarounds)
you need to do VS Workflow development ON THE SERVER with SP
installed.
You could google options for some of the clever workarounds and take
your chances.

a better option if you dont have access to a server it to use virtual
server images
(like VM ware or MS VPC) to create server environments to run from
your laptop.
I have done this with several clients and it works very well. You can
also download
fully configured MOSS or WSS trial environments for your
investigation.