Understanding collaboration sites and portal sites

So you already know that SharePoint generates Web sites, and you know you want…to change the way they look, but you might not know is that SharePoint can make…very, very different kinds of Web sites, and that you really need to know what…kind of SharePoint Web site it is you need to change.…Not surprisingly, the primary question here is whether you only have WSS, in…which you have one kind of site, or if you have MOSS, which adds another kind.…Now, if you have just WSS, the Web sites you can create can be categorized…as collaboration sites, like a team site that I'm looking at here, or a…document workspace.…

These sites are always about a few people working together on something.…Most people who use these sites are collaborators.…They get to change these sites as well as use them.…They get to edit items and upload documents.…They are simple and quick to create, and they're very simple to customize.…Now, you probably don't want to go crazy customizing the visual appearance of…these collaboration sites.…