Lotus Domino for Linux -- but not NetWare

technophile writes "This article indicates that Lotus is dropping support for NetWare in favor of Linux support. They expect to have a Linux Domino server out by end-of-year. " This came from comments from the CEO of Lotus this morning in an interview. They are "bullish" about having a version for Linux out by end of year. Excellent.

Comments

This is kind of sad.

[Ami Ganguli]

I'm glad that more stuff is coming out for Linux, but I used to administer a Netware network and it's sad it struggling. For what it does Netware is fantastic and NDS _IS_ the greatest thing since sliced bread. Linux (and even NT) will have something like NDS some day, but I think it'll be quite a few years.

Nobody has mentioned that committing to a Linux port is really a no-brainer for Lotus. They've got Unix versions already and Linux will be EASY. What they're really saying is: "Novell has lots of users but the huge development effort required for the port doesn't justify the risk. A Linux port, however, will cost next to nothing and people seem to want it, so we'll go ahead with it."

This shouldn't be seen as a Novell vs. Linux thing, because Linux doesn't really require any effort. The news here is that Novell is losing vendor support.

Re:No great shakes

[hey!]

I've had both experiences with Notes -- where it was wonderful and where it was a dog. The main thing is that you have to have a good application for Notes. If you just want e-mail and bulletin board, you're better off with IMAP and NNTP (both of which Notes interoperates with).

Good Notes applications:

• Many uses for many users.
• Need to organize docs several different ways.
• Need to replicate offline copies.
• Need to route documents.
• Need simple, transparent encryption and authentication
• Need versioning.
• Maintain chain of custody for documents.
• Need flexible, role based ACLS down to field level (e.g. can see/edit some parts of a doc but not others)

Poor Notes applications:

• Few users.
• Use for one database.
• Simple threading is good enough.
• Simple authentication good enough.

Also, Notes is a lot like Linux, in that you need a good admin and developer to make it work. I view Notes as a powerful groupware toolset, not a "groupware framework". The stuff they've tacked onto the product to make it more of a canned groupware system is godawful bad (Domino Action comes to mind). E-mail and NetNews are much more viable as a "one size fits all" solution; however if you are willing to develop your own groupware application, Notes is the way to go.