Sametime 7.5(.1) for the Mac is finally available
by Volker Weber
C99GPML.tar is your download. A tar file? Yup. It contains a directory with three subdirectories and a very funny readme.html file:
Do you get the joke? Anyway, the directories contain an Eclipse license, some optional components, including an equally funny SSO implementation:
Does anyone at IBM actually look at this stuff, before it is being shipped? It's just too easy to make fun of them. And finally there it is:
And inside there is:
Which then loads an installer, and (drumroll), a few minutes later:
BTW, it actually takes longer to launch the client than it takes to install it in the first place. Now I have to hunt down the name of the demo server, since 7.5.1 does not read the configuration which 7.5.0 beta left behind. Later.... It's stdemo3.dfw.ibm.com. The interface has been cleaned up, but there are still truncation issues we have seen 10 months ago.
Update: Just read this here:
Video conferencing through Lotus Sametime Connect client and Audio/Video participation or application sharing in Lotus Sametime Web conferences are not supported on the Macintosh platform at this time.
Update: Here is what happens if you close your buddylist:
There is still an icon in the dock, and you can see the last remaining menu, but you cannot do anything useful anymore. The only way to recover from this is to quit Sametime and restart. Are IBM's beta testers too soft to point out these issues? Or maybe they were just not listening?
The other issue I have is fonts. Maybe IBM got a little bit too creative. The picture above shows Skype, two buddly lists from iChat and finally Sametime. There is a lot of stuff in the window which is hard to read or understand.
Comments
Ho hum... A gloom of despair falls across the Lotus-using Mac-owning community once more... When will IBM get this basic stuff right on our platform?
And there was I waking up all excited ready to install the new client this morning. Perhaps I'll find something else to do instead.
"The only way to recover from this is to quit Sametime and restart. Are IBM's beta testers too soft to point out these issues?"
You mean it was beta-tested? As the first instance of an IBM Eclipse-based app on the Mac, I have to say the performance worries me greatly. On an intel-based system, it is bearable, on my PowerPC G4 Powerbook it isn't usable.
Don't get me wrong, it looks great, and it is good to see (almost) parity with the Windows platform, but I am not sure that IBM have enough Macs in daily work use to truely test these apps as they need to be tested.
"Are IBM's beta testers too soft to point out these issues?"
Not at all, and if we all weren't under NDA I'm sure a few would post their feelings about this release.
The beta forum was a very active forum with lots of feedback good and bad.
@Carl - fair point. Are you still under NDA for this release?
After closing the buddy list and ending up with the single menu you can still access the buddy list using the sametime icon in the menu bar.
Ah, there. I was only only looking at the icon in the dock, which becomes useless once you close the buddylist. The icon on the menu bar does nothing else, or does it?
Option clicking on the icon in the menu bar does bring up a short context menu.
Not on my Macs. Sametime/About Sametime also does not bring up any information. Help/About Sametime does.
Vowe - Working up a more detailed response on the points/concerns you raised. Will post here shortly.
Vowe - Please see here for some addition background on the issues you've highlighted: Sametime 7.5.1 on Mac
