computerworld.co.nz — A full year ahead of schedule IBM has brought Lotus Notes to the Linux desktop. A Linux client for Notes wasn’t expected until the arrival of Hannover, the next major release of the Notes platform, in 2007. But Big Blue had a surprise up its sleeve and, earlier this month, it announced the availability of a Linux version of the Notes 7 client.
Jul 31, 2006 View in Crawl 4
sinfreeJul 31, 2006
I will admit that I absolutely loathed Lotus Notes when we used it for e-mail at a job I had a while back. However, it is great to see IBM supporting the Linux community!
chrism1128Jul 31, 2006
I've been using this Craplication for 5 years at a fortune 500 company. It is the worst abomination going.Poor Linux never gets any love from the mainstream, and now they get this abomination dropped on them.Time to switch to UNIX I guess.
stoanhartJul 31, 2006
"I really like the Google Earth Linux release. It's a WINE.org package with the windows app..."No it's not. Picasa is, Earth is a native Linux app.
wistarAug 1, 2006
I'm disappointed that it's not an Elise with a Penguin painted on each of the doors.
evilcartmanAug 1, 2006
Sorry, but no. I'm running the Notes for Linux client, and this version is NOT based on Hannover. It is an Eclipse-based version of the current 7.x client. It has the same interface look and feel as Windows/Mac 6.x/7.x clients. Hannover will be version 8.x+
docnoAug 1, 2006
@TheSpookReally, once you get used to it, it's not that much different than any other email client. Sure it has it's quirks, but so does Outlook. Most folks have always used Outlook, so they don't "see" them.Having said that, it is pretty unfriendly for a new user. Lotus is *finally* getting the message that their interface is pretty ugly and unrefined - the new eclipse versions of the client look awesome (google for Sametime 7.5 to get an idea on where IBM is going with the next generation Notes client).Notes is an incredibly flexible system, and the fastest at developing workflow based applications. But because of the sheer complexity of it, it can take a long time to get comfortable with it. I really didn't come to appreciate Notes until I had been administering it for three years. Once you get a handle on it and see the potential, it's a great system to admin. It's incredibly flexible, and so much easier to keep and maintain than exchange it isn't even funny.That's the problem - it's a victim of it's own success - all that potential often gets lost to the new or non-technical user. 10 years later, IBM is finally addressing the last of the interface concerns. Way longer than it should have taken, but I had given up on them ever cleaning up the client.The release of the Linux client just re-affirms the "new" IBM when it comes to Notes. I've been out of the Notes admin game for a couple of years now, it might be time to hop back in - it's a fun product and a great community - I do miss it....
docnoAug 1, 2006
Yes. One of the greatest strengths about Notes (other than it's replication technology) is the strong backwards compatibility. I'm using the Notes 7 client at work against a Notes 6 mail template hosted on a Domino 6 server - works just fine...
whitey04Aug 3, 2006
I am (right now) running release 6.5.2 of Lotus Notes.It sucks. I don't have a high threshold for an EMAIL client. Yes I said EMAIL. I don't care about the workflow or the widgets, or the scripts. I just want to open my damn inbox and not have to wait 90 seconds every time I change folders. I use the workflow stuff twice a year, I use email 10 times a day. Which is more important?
jezhumbleAug 29, 2006
I got the Notes 7 client downloaded and installed on Ubuntu 6.06 (dapper). It works, although it's quite slow. You have to mess around a bit (instructions here: <a class="user" href="http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=222492).">http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=222492).</a> Essentially, it looks and behaves very similar to Notes 6.5. It is also very slow, and doesn't play nicely with GLX if you switch on all the alpha-channel effects stuff. However, yay! I don't need to boot into Windows at work any more!