communicate :: collaborate :: commemorate

1 common belief in the Exchange community

by Volker Weber

1. Notes is dead

Comments

For how many years is that true? :-)

2. Notes? Who/what is Notes? ;-)

Nobody uses that anymore. We use Excel instead.

Another few from Exchange people (that I deal with every day in many sites). That being said, they tend to be surprised when everything else goes down BUT domino from time to time.

The Domino server is an outdated piece of technology

The Domino server cannot scale

Nothing is backward compatible in Domino

There is no point in coding anything outside of .net

The Notes client cannot operate on a network based installation

Nobody needs local replication

Security in Lotus Notes is basic

Nobody will use Open Office or symphony ever

Google is "just a search engine"

In the sites I work in, in all fairness, typically the most stable things in environments is Domino and big tin systems. Regardless of operating system Domino is running on.

@Paul: The Notes client cannot operate on a network based installation

Well, outlook can not as well see KB297019

To be dead Notes has to have first existed in their minds. Many don't even know it exists, Lotus is 1-2-3 right?

@Carl: When I rejoined IBM in 2001 I had to attend Lotus orientation -- even though I had originally joined Lotus in 1990. As a Lotus old-timer it was kinda sad. They spent a little time talking about 1-2-3 and then went directly to Notes/Domino as if Lotus had done nothing else between the two. That was seven years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if they just skip over the 1-2-3 era now. Anyone younger than 25 or so probably hasn't heard of it anyway.

I would add "2. Exchange is comparable to Notes" ;-)

Florian, if I knew more about the Exchange community, I could probably come up with a Top Ten. I am leading towards what Tobias said. They basically don't care.

Domino people talk a lot about Exchange. Exchange people are not very concerned with Domino.

"Domino people talk a lot about Exchange. Exchange people are not very concerned with Domino."

I think this is true. You very rarely do you hear end users demanding from their IT Managers "we have to switch to Notes", "I have to get Notes". This plugs in very nicely to Nathan Freeman's blog entry from the other day about the target of IBM marketing.

You wouldn't care about anything you consider to be dead, would you?
I'd say Exchange people are actually concerned with Domino when it comes to defending their position - they just usually don't have to defend it.

@Volker and @Carl: I brought this up with a well-known Lotus employee and his reply was that this was only by appearance. His take was that MS was very concerned about Notes/Domino "behind closed doors".

In recent Notes to Microsoft migration activities I was astounded to see the amount of 'blind faith' Microsoft cronies have in their products' own abilities. It's a faith vehemently defended by MS - its also heavily supported by misinformation and comparisons with older versions of Notes. Sadly an objective review of the facts proves Notes the better contender in almost all aspects.

*I'm about to be violently shouted down by blind faith proponents*

For the cynics amongst us, two really sad things to see are:
1) The cynical attitude that MS gods have regarding the concept of objective truth.
2) IBM's gods' naive belief that the objective truth will somehow penetrate the substantial barricades, formed in the MS heavenlies, somehow by itself.

I guess that would never happen with "'blind faith' Lotus cronies", right?

No - au contraire! It does, but that was the surprise - I always thought that Notes cronies had heaps of belief in their solutions - then I came across some .NET guys replacing Notes and realised these guys have too much faith for their own good - and for the greater good of the business this was happening in. Don't get me wrong, I believe faith is good, but I've found faith salted with good analysis the best by far.

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vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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