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Introducing Lotus Notes 8 ... and how to migrate easier to Exchange

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 10:24 PM

This week, LotuSphere 2007 is being held in sunny Florida, this is IBM's chance to show off all the latest and greatest goings on in the Lotus world.

The big news this years is the formal unveiling of Lotus Notes 8.

Now the main gripe of Lotus Notes has finally been tackled, the UI. Now I'm going to reserve judgement on whether it really is better until I've actually played with it.

So here is a what it looks like ...

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, those tabs do say 'New Document','New Presentation','New Spreadsheet' because integrated into Notes is a full word processor, spreadsheet and presentation system thats is compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint and the new ODF formats.

If you want to have a look-see at them here is a link. It doesn't take a genius to realise that Microsoft now has decent competition from IBM again which can only be good news.

Now, I'm not going to start raving on about Notes 8 because the simple fact is that Lastminute are an Exchange outfit and the plain truth is after this week I will no-doubt not see Lotus Notes again and so I doubt I will care.

If you are like me and had the dearest wish to get your arse off Domino and on to Exchange, Microsoft have released a new set of tools that can help which you can find from the beautiful Eileens blog.

Feedback

# re: Introducing Lotus Notes 8 ... and how to migrate easier to Exchange

It's pretty now. But it's still a crappy product.

Seriously, IBM must be getting desperate if they are now wrapping spreadsheet, presentation, word processing into the product. It just goes to show how little it actually does on its own... They've got a ways to go to be competitive with MS.

And don't even get me started on how crappy it is to work with under the covers. I just got done with a 6-month project where we had to make up most of what we were doing because there was no EASY way in Notes.

Okay, I'll step down from my soapbox now. 1/24/2007 7:32 AM | Steve Kaschimer

# re: Introducing Lotus Notes 8 ... and how to migrate easier to Exchange

Ah, but the interface you've been using for the last few years is their last attempt at a revised user interface. I might get a nice surprise with the new interface - but I doubt it!

Sadly, I too am now somewhere that uses Exchange and Outlook, so I don't have to use Notes anymore... 1/24/2007 8:33 AM | Richard

# re: Introducing Lotus Notes 8 ... and how to migrate easier to Exchange

I came from a Notes environment to a job where I was tasked with building an Exchange infrastructure from the ground up. Exchange is OK as mail system and everyone loves the pretty look and feel of Outlook, but it's no Notes. Notes is so much more than just email. The ability to create custom applications, then web-enable those applications is far superior than trying to build a half-assed work around with public folders. From an uneducated end-user perspective, the client isn't, at least wasn't until now, as attractive. Well, IBM developed a connector for Outlook years ago if that's the interface that one must use. Recently, I did some work on the side where I upgraded a Notes 6.5 infrastructure to Notes 8. The new product (as long as you don't install the basic version) is based much more heavily on Java and in the case of the client, it's Java and Eclipse. This is where you get the pretty UI that everyone complains about. Since eclipse is a development platform, one would assume that someone with Java development skills could create plugins and other products that would allow one to make the Notes client even more powerful than it is out of the box. By the way, the Limited Sametime client and server comes with the package. So, you can put up an instant message server where the client is built into the mail client and not a separate application which increases the configuration and resource requirements. 4/25/2008 5:33 PM | BadGuy

# re: Introducing Lotus Notes 8 ... and how to migrate easier to Exchange

Thanks the comment's BadGuy. I'm currently using Notes 8.0.1 and I still don't like it much. I'm not a fanboy of Outlook either I have to say. I believe that both client's need work. What I dislike about Notes however is the inconsistant interfaces all over the application I will at some point document my issues so stay subscribed. 4/25/2008 6:24 PM | Dave Oliver

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