I have some curious blanks in my memory when dealing with SharePoint, such as the meaning ‘ghosted’ and ‘unghosted’ – please use ‘customized’ or ‘uncustomized’. (I don’t see where the undead enter into it all). One such blank is Site Templates vs Site Definitions. It’s discussed a bit on MSDN (for 2003, but the same applies for 2007) where the bottom section is most useful, and Robert Bogue has written a very good article. The short of it:
| Site Templates | Site Definitions |
|---|---|
| + Simple to create | - Requires actual development |
| + Doesn’t require administrator | - Requires administrator |
| - Risk of customization, and so worse performance | + Better performance |
| - Can’t define list templates | + Deep and full control |
Must have a go at doing some of this sometime