Lotus Notes For Linux To Be Released By IBM

gamigad writes "According to ZDNet, Lotus Notes 7.0.1 will be released for Linux. Availability is expected to be on July 24. It ain't gonna be a free lunch, tho" It's going to be based mainly on the Eclipse framework, and it does appear that you'll be able to swap a Linux version for a Windows or Mac version if you so choose.

Re:Can't be a bad thing

[pegr]

I'm glad to see a native version, but Notes always worked very well under WINE for me. See what can happen when you write only to the published API?

Too little, too late

[cerberusss]

This comes severely late, in my opinion. The Wine [winehq.com] and the CodeWeavers [codeweavers.com] people have put work into running Notes on Linux.

IMHO, it would've been better if IBM had put this investment into Wine so other applications had profited as well. A proper native compilation along with some polishing for the various desktops could've made this "achievement" years earlier. Think Google's Picasa [google.com], which was nicely ported to Linux this way, and runs like a charm.

Re:Can't be a bad thing

[jpmorgan]

Truly spoken by someone who has never used Notes. Is there no sanctuary left from this monstrosity?

IBM internal

[seasunset]

I am speculating here, but I think this might have big consequences inside ... IBM.

AFAIK, Notes was the single big piece missing to allow desktop transition to Linux inside IBM. I would bet that the more geeky IBM employees that were stuck on Windows because of Notes will change.

And maybe in the future the company will encorage this.

If you consider the sheer size of IBM its no small deal for Linux deskop usage...

Just speculating though... Is there any IBMer wanting to comment?

Late, but still interesting...

[Christopher B. Brown]

As much as it nicely rhymes with "Bloated Goats," for mobile users, the ability to stow your documents in an encrypted, replicated data store is worth rather a lot.

It represents a decent answer to the "oops, someone stole my laptop at the airport" problem in that it offers both a quick recovery process and some protection that the stealers should not get at your data.

I'll be very curious as to what happens with respect to document management, whether they'll be supporting OpenOffice.org, or if there's either some other strategy (SmartSuite for Linux???), or a lack of strategy...

Re:IBM internal

[LinuxHam]

IBM, like most large organizations, has a standard desktop image running Windows. Actually, about 30 of them if you count the site-specific customizations. This has been called c4eb, or Client for eBusiness for several years. I first saw the Linux version in late 2001. Now, in what seems like a fork, a new standard Linux desktop, OpenClient 1.0 or something like that, has gone GA. I've run several iterations under VMware workstation to track its progress and functionality. I've used this Eclipse-based version of Notes. It is bears no resemblance to the full client you are used to. Problem is, my guest still swaps even after I give it 512MB, particularly after I loaded Notes. It is huge. But as the new Linux desktop continues to mature, I'm sure I can expect to come across more than one or two people a year running it as their primary desktop, as has been the case so far.

Hope this helps.

People are missing the point

[Mechanik]

I'm more excited about moving Notes to the Eclipse framework rather than the aspect of Linux support. Not that Linux support isn't important, but moving to Eclipse is going to mean that the general usability of Notes is going to get better for everyone regardless of the platform that they're on.

Hell, as someone that has to use Notes, I'm salivating just at the prospect of the better view/window management that Eclipse provides. Eclipse is an extremely flexible and customizeable framework, and the lack of such customizeablity has been hurting the usability of Notes for a long time. "What do you mean the preview pane is fixed to be at the bottom of the screen? You mean I can't dock it at the right? ARRRRRGH!". Etc.

If the people on Notes start following the Eclipse Way (TM), things will only get better from here.

Mechanik

Re:IBM internal

[ivan256]

In my experience working at Iris, platforms supported by Notes were customer driven. For a while after Notes 5 was released, they assumed that a browser based UI would be sufficient for multi-platform support on the client side, and focused on porting Domino instead. (Notes 4 ran on Windows, AIX, Solaris, MacOS 8, HP-UX, and internally on Linux).

I would guess that this announcement comes from having recently sold a largish customer on linux, or at the request of a large customer. If it were just for internal cost cutting, they'd have no problem maintaining an internal version. After all, they've done it before, and they do it with several other apps.

However, many companies are so afflicted.

It may, or may not be rational, but it seems that you have made your mind up already. Cost cutting by using your own product instead of buying from your competition seems pretty rational to me, and completely disconnected for running operations outside the US (which IBM has been doing for decades; well before it became trendy).

Re:Actually, it's a good thing,

[booch]

I went into #linux, and got yelled at for having this "Windows" installed. They said it was total crap and nothing would work right with it.

At this point, fuck Linux. Sick of dealing with the bullshit.

Re:No! Nooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

> As for the server, our entire Notes infrastructure has to be rebooted once a week at my company. (A very large MNC...) Once a frickin' week!

I'm sorry you were unable to keep Notes running. I despise the Notes client with a passion, but our company with over 20,000 employees never ever ever had Notes go down except for failing disks, and even that just meant that synced stuff was a little slower while it hit the next replica. Notes is a freaking tank (unfortunately about as agile as one).

I've no doubt that your infrastructure's failures were probably hell to diagnose though -- it's about as hard to fix in the field as a tank too.

Re:No! Nooo!

[pstorry]

I don't have time to deal with all your problems, but I'd like to make a point about reliability...

Restarting your Domino servers once a week is not right. Domino doesn't require that. That needs to be looked at.

So - do you actually know why they require restarts?

It might not be Domino.

Seriously.

I manage a number of Domino servers in my job. Some of them have to be restarted at least once a month, often because they've begun to degrade massively in their performance - or worse, they've crashed.
The other servers are fine, and will run for months before they get restarted - and they're restarted because of OS patches or other maintenance, not because of problems on the Domino server.

Why is this? Well, one word - McAfee's Groupshield. The servers which run it require careful care and occasional kicking. The servers that don't need Groupshield on them don't have it, because it's a PITA which causes us grief.

We'd like to move away from Groupshield, but it requires lots of evaluation/testing/piloting, and we have other projects to be getting on with.

And don't think I'm singling out Groupshield. I've seen some abysmal backup programs, content security programs, and other third party add-ins in my time. Don't even think about mentioning ArcServe, for instance. Basically, lots of 3rd party software talks to Notes/Domino via the C/C++/COM/Java APIs it exposes - and not all of them are particularly well written.

Your experience with the Domino servers is not typical of others. There may be a specific cause for that - if not technical, then management or procedural. But I do find it very difficult to give your grievances ANY credit when you espouse rubbish like this that can so easily be explained, yet is related with so few details that it is difficult for anyone to easily check the facts.

IBM is moving albeit slowly

[nbahi15]

IBM makes some cool stuff. We have a "lifeboat" CD that actually installs a redhat derivative over the network, and configures all the applications (notes included) and vpn. It is fairly slick, although it is really geared towards the average employee. At work (IBM) I run Ubuntu, some people run Fedora, and others Gentoo. Some of the highlights of IBM technology include one of the coolest printer config systems ever. It is amazing how easily you configure the printer via Firefox. I guess if I had a single complaint about the company it is our love of RPMs, but with alien all can be made right. The pre-release Notes client for linux is slow but they are working on it, in the meantime running it within Crossover Office is fine by me. I have never been told what to run at the office, I suppose if your manager didn't want you messing with Linux they could forbid it, but really don't mess with you unless you are infected with a virus, or running a switch or hub in your cube without manager approval. I have worked a few places and IBM is by far the most Linux friendly, excited about moving forward place I have been. I can't think of a day someone didn't talk about Linux, or how much they hate ATIs crap support for Linux.

As for Notes being a necessary evil,,, well I feel this is an issue that comes down to groupware vs email. If you are in the give me Pine or give me death camp, Lotus Notes is going to drive you mad. If you are in the Gmail camp Lotus Notes is likely to be your enemy. If you are an employee that lives and dies by a calendar, and meetings, then Notes is a friend. The UI arguments are more of a it could better, but most people will live with it and never know the difference.