Marco will not be a happy camper
by Volker Weber
IBM has pushed back the beta for Notes 7.0.2 Mac again:
7.0.2 beta for the Macintosh - The Notes 7.0.2 Mac beta will begin at the end of September (2006), rather than the previously announced (below) start of the end of August. An announcement will be posted in the 7.0.2 MR beta feedback forum and an email sent to this distribution list once it's available. The DWA (Domino Web Access) version for the Mac is available now and ships as part of the Domino 7.0.2 Beta 2 download file.
The reference to (below) is:
Important Note about the Mac - Plan change for the 7.0.2 Notes client for the Macintosh platform. Originally the Mac beta was planned to coincide with 7.0.2 Beta 2, but it is being delayed until end of August to resolve a higher percentage of outstanding ship stopping bugs. The exact beta plan has not been finalized, but we are working on it.
The Mac beta seems to be elusive. Meanwhile Mac users keep crashing their crappy 6.5 client.
Comments
I saw it today .. the Mac 7.0.2 beta ... both in the keynote and I got a few moments of hands on .. it seems great from what I could see and tell.
Personally, I think Macro will be ok with the beta being pushed back to take care of issues. Nobody wants bad code shipped
I saw the client in January and it looked really good. Didn't we all during the keynote?
"Nobody wants bad code shipped". That is quite some statement for somebody who does not have to suffer the code that IBM shipped for Notes 6.5 on the Mac. I will let Marco (not Macro) speak for himself.
Um, last I checked I have a PowerBook sitting with me ... running Notes 6.5 ... I know how bad it is.
Sorry Marco ... bad typo :)
Notes 6.5.5 client on the Mac is very stable. I have not had any crashes with it and I use it day in day out.. 6.5.4 had the occasional crash. Lets not exaggerate the stability!
Well I shouldnt have said anything. Notes 6.5.5 crashed on me this morning (a html email problem) for the first time in approx 3 months... Talk about tempting fate!
Thank You all, I have serveral crashs per hour every day with notes 6.5.5. Lot's of open PMRs @ IBM support. IBM Support in Europe and India are not able to reproduce because they have no mac hardware. The Notes 6.5.5 on mac does not support JAVA, right? IBM support tells me to install Java on the Mac to get Java support with the Notes client - I think this is a nobrainer. ;-)
Notes on Mac 6.5.5 drives to work more and more with Domino Web Access 7.0.2 beta on Mac using Firefox which works really great.
I am waiting for the MAC 7.x code , please IBM do not pospone this code shipment like we have seen that with Mac Client for ST 7.5.
Thank You all.
Cheers ;-)
Marco,
IBM support never had Mac hardware when I was there either, it was always pretty embarassing.
Amazingly we had an AS/400 in our test lab...but no Mac!
WTF?!?
After years of poor or no support for the Mac, IBM have fully committed to a Mac client that is well built and has feature and stability parity with the Windows client. They have publically agreed that their existing mac client is insufficient.
Despite actual numbers of these machines in the market which represent a demand that is low enough to barely justify the expense, the commitment is there.
They're giving you what you want.
Now, you're hearing (and I know you don't want to say where) that it's going to take longer than IBM would have liked and that it won't be ready for beta at the same time as the updated Windows client. Assuming for a second that you heard correctly, what is the alternative?
IBM could release a Mac beta that doesn't meet your standards or theirs and hope that despite all previous experience the Mac community suddenly developes understanding and says "well, I'm sure they'll understand and won't rip it in the press." All evidence to date is contrary to that.
You guys are saying they don't test or support the Mac client enough, yet the reason posted for the delay is a list of critical bugs. Hmm. Somebody is doing some testing, I'd guess.
Waiting for the software you need to work better is a frustrating thing. All the more so when you think even a crappy beta would be better than what you have. Still, bitching about missed beta milestone dates that have never been promised doesn't seem helpful.
I'd rather get good software late, than bad software on time. See R5.0 for example. The dates were met at the expense of quality. That was a mistake and angered both the developers and the community.
You want a mac client that works as well as the windows client. IBM have said you're going to get it. In return, every bit of bad news leaks before they can put a message together.
Vowe - from this and your other post, it looks to me like someone under NDA is feeding you news pretty regularly, but they're only feeding you on items of concern to them -- bad news only, and on things that person cares about.
Until you get some confirmation and give IBM a chance to respond it's not news, it's rumor. IMO, it's not helpful.
Andrew, the Sametime 7.5 client for Mac is posponed for 2007, is this right and public?
Honestly, Marco, I don't know. I don't do Sametime at all, haven't followed the beta or even the announcements, and wouldn't know what is public and what isn't even if someone next to me had the information you're asking about. Sorry.
@Marco, "I have serveral crashs per hour every day with notes 6.5.5."
This is not our experience of Mac Notes client reliability. I have approx 120 macs on OSX 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4 running Notes 6.5.5. There are the occasional crashes, yes, but not at the level that you mention. Maybe once a week at the very most.
The annoying bugs were HTML emails causing client to lock up in 6.5.4, largely fixed in 6.5.5
Also, 6.5.4 kept crashing on dual processor macs, something wasnt thread safe, fixed in 6.5.5
Sounds like you have another issue here i.e. corrupt cache/pernames/bookmarks database or something. I cannot relate to your experience of the client stability. Sorry.
hm, I would be happy to get this fixed, believe me, my company has everything in notes, we do not use MS Word, thats why it is really important to get a client running, today I use Parallels to work with Notes 7 but I would like to work in a mac environment. IBM Support cannot help me in this case, I reinstalled serveral times now with clean database, not replicated, working on the server only, with all the problems. I have MacbookPro, 10.4.7, any hint is highly appreciated.
Thank You.
@Marco - You say you have tried fresh install, clean databases, no replication etc. Are you using German localisation? If so, I wonder if there is a problem with the German Mac client, try the client in English if you can? IBM are obviously testing the English one a lot more. We have had problems with Chinese/Japanese PC client crashing so localisation can affect client stability.
You have the same hardware as I. Macbook Pro. 10.4.7, 2GB ram so this is puzzling. We run English 6.5.5 client, Standard 6.5.4 Mail file template. All dbs you use compacted/fixup'ed?
Thank You, I will check the 6.5.5 template, today I am using the 7.0 template.
ciao marco
I have the same problem at Marco. Several crashes with the Mac client throughout the day. It's bad enough that I have moved most of the mail that flows into a secondary account (for mailing lists, mostly) into Thunderbird.
I have to do local compacts on a regular basis of my mail file and other databases, otherwise, the crashes are worse. I don't think you can easily compare the environments since there is so much variation in the types of emails, usage.
I guess we'll just hold our breaths for the 7.0x Mac client.
