I'm a huge fan, and long time user of, Groove — one of the “Internet aware” sequels to Lotus Notes. I use it on projects when I come across fellow-addicts although I've never been very good at evangelizing new users into the fold. This is one of those things that you have to come to at your own speed, I guess.

Anyway, the new version (3.0) is due to come out next week and looks pretty darn nifty to me. One of the big complaints that many of us have had is that it's dang slow, both launching and switching between workspaces, which really gets annoying. All the Groovies are saying that this new version fixes that, which may go a long way towards bringing more converts into the fold.

Not freeware, but a very good value. It's got some pretty nifty “always on” encryption built in and I like the way copies of the shared workspaces reside on every members' computer. That saved my bacon one time when a computer crash wiped out the work on one team-member's computer and we could get them right back up to speed by pushing the workspace over to their backup machine.

Ah lahk et…