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Lotus Domino for Linux goes Gold
The Masked Twit writes "The Lotus Domino R5 for Linux gold code has just been posted on Lotus' Notes Net site. Have fun!
" We've known it's been in the works for awhile, but now it's finally here.
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I work in a Notes shop, a pretty big (250+ Domino servers) shop. I've done a few installs, all on NT, but mostly I get the servers once they've been set up. Still here are some pointsers to get you started.
I don't know squat about installing on Linux, so this only applies to what to do afterwards. Also, I highly recommend taking some of the SysAd courses for the Certified Lotus Professional exams. This will at least give you some background with the technology.
A couple of hints with the install that are common to all Domino installs:
1. Use your company name for the certifier. Your best bet is something that is 8 characters or less. Acromnyms work well (like AT&T). Don't loose the password. The certifier is perhaps the most important file in a Domino environment.
2. DON'T USE Notes1 FOR THE SERVERS NAME. Pick something, anything other than that. Also, keep the name short (8 char or less). Just about any character is allowed (even spaces), but I would recommend sticking just to alphanumeric characters.
3. Pick a domain name based upon your Certifier, perhaps even identical. Domino mail domains are different from SMTP domains. Don't put a ".com" at the end. Just go with one simple word.
4. Other than that, go with the install defaults, there isn't much that you need to tweak on the install out of the box.
Once you get the server up and running, you are going to need a Win(95/98/NT) box for the Admin client. Install all three (Notes/Designer/Admin) clients on this box. You have to have the Admin, and the other two will prove useful along the way. Lotus currenlty only supports these on Win32, though I've heard rumors of guys running them on WINE.
There are two directions that you can go with a Notes install. It can either start as a mail server and move into a Mail & Application server. Or you can go the other direction and put a couple of departmental applications and then use it to replace your installed mail system.
Either way, you are going to have to create some user accounts. Notes allows you to import from a WinNT account, but that likely won't be necessary here. You'll use the admin client to create the accounts. It will create ID files with the certifier and also mail files for each user. Use the ID's to install the Notes clients if you are going to access the server with Lotus client. If they are just going to access the server via a web browser, then you just need to create person documents in the Domino Directory, each with a username/password combo.
The server is still pretty useless if you don't have an application to use. You can download some generic Domino applications from notes.net in the 'Sandbox' area. Throw and application on the server and let some coworks play with it. Discussion databases work well out of the box. Notes is very good at workflow tracking and those kind of apps aren't too difficult to develope.
Let me know if you have more questions. Like any other server technology, its pretty useless if you don't have a plan for how to use it. The good/bad thing about Notes is that it is very flexible.
In all things moderation.
Sounds to me like your just a piss poor NT admin. As for the "I have and MCSE so I should know" theory; just because you have an MCSE doesn't make you some sort of 'lord of all that is NT'
You are right about something...a MCSE doesn't make you good at what you do...the thing is...I do have almost 5 years of experience as an NT admin (and almost 20 of using computers in one way or another). I don't think of myself as the ultimate NT admin (I do know some that are better than me) but I do *know* that I'm a competent admin.
I refuse to run NT as a server because I hate having midnight calls, but I do admit NT is a good desktop enviroment for some people, as long as they don't mind it BSODing once in a while. The right tool, for me, is Linux on my servers (don't need a huge server, just email, web, gatewaying, firewalling, file/printer serving and to be my workstation in a 50 or so puter's network, so I don't use Solaris or one of the other big unices), and NT on my PHB's desktop.
Vox
Pain is the gift of the gods, and I'm the one they chose as their messanger...
Hmm, we have couple Domino servers here at work. I wonder if a huge corporate monolith like my present employer would ever consider the Linux flavor of Domino.
It'd be interesting to hear about who is actually deploying Domino servers on Linux.
--Joe--
Program Intellivision!
Seems like quite a few places use domino. Still, all I hear is Exchange this and Exchange that. I'd like to exchange Exchange with something that runs on a fairly stable OS, like XXX (be it domino or whatever) on Linux (or *-BSD).
At least in my country people seem to be fairly MS oriented. What's the hazzles of moving on to domino ?
Anyone with experience please reply. I'm sick of power-cycling NT ``servers'' every two days...
...about Lotus Gold? Gor groupware/content management I really think Lotus is outdated and application servers like Zope (www.zope.org) are much convenient. Beside this, Zope is Open Source, Python-powered, better coded.
-- We provide Zope consulting from US$ 25 hourly!
Rather than attempt to describe the Lotus Notes client, here's a link for our enjoyment.
If Lotus wants to tap into the extremely profitable and vast Linux market, it needs to be making strides. Baby steps are fine, to start with, but you won't get far down the road with those alone.
IBM has made tremendous strides, and each seems to be greater than the last. That's great! That's wonderful! And that should be shining example to Lotus, the reluctant tortoise. Even tortoises can win races, but not if they end up sleeping for longer than the hare.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
As another reader pointed out, Lotus has some issues to resolve. Now, if anybody has ever had to use keyboard shortcuts for Netscape and thought the same shortcuts work under linux... ah, well. And Netscape is actually somewhat compliant to the "windowish" way of doing things... after reading this critique.. I wouldn't be suprised if Lotus threw foot pedals under each user's machine and had them "play" their computer like an organ to do something simple like send an e-mail!
--
There would not be much interesting to see of Domino. It is just a server, and would much like Apache does. If you ever saw Domin on PC it looks just like a DOS window with a couple of things printed on the screen
I have included bellow a imulated screen shot. If you still want to see one.
-- Begin Simulation---
#domino &
Lotus Domino Starting
Domino started successful
#
-- End Simulation---
This is why they do not include any screen shots becuase it is the client that is of interest, and that only runs on windows 95/98
Oliver
Version 2.0.1 is here. I don't know what site you went to, but I've been using this for a couple of months. In any case, Zope.org appears to be the site to hit for all things Zope.