Microsoft produce a lot of documentation on upgrading from WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0; from SPS 2003 and MOSS 2007; and I suppose from CMS 2002 to MOSS 2007.

Free documentation that's available on-line.

So what is the extra value in providing the same information in the "Upgrading to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007" section of the MS Press book "MOSS 2007 Administrator's Companion"?

The usual reason is that - from past experience - the information in such a book is better. Certainly I used to always do my WSS 2.0 and especially SPS 2003 (where I had less practice) installations with one eye on the MS documentation and the other on the relevant chapter of the v2 equivalent of the MOSS 2007 Administrator's Companion - i.e. the SPS 2003 Resource Kit (leaving my middle eye to look at the screen and the keyboard).

I would hope that that's the case here too although there is a small risk because the Admin Companion came out right after the release of the product and giving lead-times in the publishing business was obviously written on pre-production builds.

However there is one aspect of upgrading that is a curious omission from that book and as far as I can see it's not (much?) covered by Microsoft on-line documentation either.

This is upgrading from WSS 3.0 to MOSS 2007.

Now I'm aware (and I've said so often enough in the newsgroups) that the way to upgrade WSS 2.0 to MOSS 2007 is to first upgrade WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0 (following one of three methods listed in the MS documentation and/or that book) and then to upgrade WSS 3.0 to MOSS 2007.

I usually throw this off as if it were obvious. But is a WSS 3.0 to MOSS 2007 upgrade obvious?

As to why it's not in the book, I suspect it was because they were thinking in terms of product families when they wrote it.

WSS 2.0 -> WSS 3.0               (WSS) family upgrade
SPS 2003 -> MOSS 2007         (SPS)  family upgrade
and
CMS 2002 -> MOSS 2007 is the only way CMS 2002 can be "upgraded".

But WSS 2.0 to MOSS 2007 is moving in two directions at once (up and over). Did the writers of the book chapters not think anyone would be doing that? or did they just run out of time?

(Or is it in the book and I just haven't found it yet?)