Suppafly, you've got it backwards. Windows is the primary platform for Domino (something north of 70% of all Domino shops run their Domino servers on Windows), and historically, AIX (actually, all Unix flavors) are the port.
More recently, IBM has done dev on both Windows and Unix simultaneously, but the primary code base comes from Windows.
As for scalability, there's a site you should check out called www.notesbench.org. As the name implies, you'll find benchmarking info there about Domino. Understand what you're reading -- compare benchmarks running the same workloads (i.e., don't compare an R6mail benchmark with an R6iNotes benchmark -- two different beasts); always divide the number of supported users by the number of partitions (partition = logical instance of a Domino server), so a benchmark with 125,000 supported users on 27 partitions is really about 4,600 users/Domino server, not 125,000; always look at the cost/user (which is a simple calculation of cost of the configuration tested by the number of users benchmarked, not an estimate of operational costs) -- if it says "N/A", then, according to the guidelines of the notesbench consortium, the configuration cost over $1million (because if your config is over $1M, you are not required to report $$/user). What you'll find if you spend some time there reading and understanding the benchmarks, you'll find that Windows is the most scalable Domino platform, and the lowest $$/user, with only a few exceptions...
Really? Hmmmm...
The "personal productivity tools" in Workplace are open, right? OpenOffice, right? Yeah, except they've been "extended" by IBM. Are those extensions also open, i.e., have IBM's modifications been published to "the community"? NO. They are, yes, "proprietary" extensions.
From IBM's Redbook on running Linux on iSeries:
"Linux delivers excellent open source solutions, while OS/400 is a premier integrated platform for business solutions. Linux enables a new stream of e-business applications for the iSeries platform that complements its strength as an integrated core business solution. Linux applications benefit from the iSeries platform's ability to provide resource flexibility, security, reliability, and connectivity to other applications on a single server."
So.....why do I need OS/400 if I have Linux? Isn't this a little bit like running Linux in a virtual PC?
But, let's get back to the question at hand: Is Microsoft Exchange a proprietary solution running on a proprietary platform produced by an almost exclusively proprietary company (I'm surprised at "almost exclusively"...I'm wondering which part of what MS does you consider to be non-proprietary?)?
Exchange supports POP, IMAP/4, TCP/IP, SMTP/MIME, X.400 addressing, etc., etc., etc. Lotus Domino supports most of these things, too, though there are, shall we say, horror stories about customer who've tried using Domino as an IMAP server. Exchange requires the Active Directory, which is proprietary to Microsoft. Domino requires the Domino directory, which is proprietary to Domino. AD can act as a native LDAP directory. Domino can, too, but requires an adapter to do so. AD can be used to provide identity, authentication, and security to all MS apps, and to non-MS apps, as well, including single sign-on. In other words, AD can be used as an organization's authoritative directory. Domino...can't. Notes has a PKI, which is installed and configured by default! When I worked for Lotus, we used to describe Notes certs as X.500 "like". The Microsoft PKI uses standard certs.
The native document format for the upcoming release of Office is XML. That is a standard which was jointly sponsored by Microsoft and IBM! In fact, there are many such standards and standards boards which IBM and Microsoft work on together. So what is IBM's response to Microsoft moving to an industry-accepted web service standard as our default document format? IBM throws its weight behind a competing, not yet accepted, not yet broadly implemented, "emerging" standard called OpenDocs, and joins a suit in EMEA against Microsoft assailing MS for, yeah, that's right, anticompetitive behavior because MS is using XML as its native document format in the next version of Office. So, if you can't compete on technology, sue?
This idea that Microsoft is the evil empire, and the rest of the technology community are the rebels fighting for what is right is just getting tiresome. Remember, people buy Microsoft software, and nobody is holding a gun to their heads to force them. If there were better solutions, people would buy them!!
And how many customers does IBM know of that are using that connector? From what I understand, it's approaching zero, due to the "least common denominator" functionality the connector provides. For someone accustomed to Notes, there's a fair bit of Notes functionality that doesn't work (can't cluster my mail file, Outlook doesn't really grok doclinks, it doesn't grok things like discontinuous repeating appointments, etc.). For someone accustomed to using Outlook against an Exchange server, same problem -- Notes doesn't grok a repeating appointment with no end date, Notes doesn't know how to put an appointment in my calendar as "tentative" before I even accept it, so that I can see where it fits against my other commitments, etc., etc., etc. Net, Outlook against Domino is a sub-optimal experience for people used to receiving their email in either Domino or Exchange.
That said, Outlook is definitely the preferred end-user experience (if you doubt that, just look at the Hannover client -- too bad Lotus lost that court battle against Borland years ago when it was decided that you couldn't patent a UI:) ). So, those people who want an Outlook experience should pressure their companies to move to Exchange!
disclaimer: As my user name implies, I work for MS, after ten years at Lotus, and a few at IBM earlier in my career...)
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Suppafly, you've got it backwards. Windows is the primary platform for Domino (something north of 70% of all Domino shops run their Domino servers on Windows), and historically, AIX (actually, all Unix flavors) are the port. More recently, IBM has done dev on both Windows and Unix simultaneously, but the primary code base comes from Windows. As for scalability, there's a site you should check out called www.notesbench.org. As the name implies, you'll find benchmarking info there about Domino. Understand what you're reading -- compare benchmarks running the same workloads (i.e., don't compare an R6mail benchmark with an R6iNotes benchmark -- two different beasts); always divide the number of supported users by the number of partitions (partition = logical instance of a Domino server), so a benchmark with 125,000 supported users on 27 partitions is really about 4,600 users/Domino server, not 125,000; always look at the cost/user (which is a simple calculation of cost of the configuration tested by the number of users benchmarked, not an estimate of operational costs) -- if it says "N/A", then, according to the guidelines of the notesbench consortium, the configuration cost over $1million (because if your config is over $1M, you are not required to report $$/user). What you'll find if you spend some time there reading and understanding the benchmarks, you'll find that Windows is the most scalable Domino platform, and the lowest $$/user, with only a few exceptions...
Really? Hmmmm... The "personal productivity tools" in Workplace are open, right? OpenOffice, right? Yeah, except they've been "extended" by IBM. Are those extensions also open, i.e., have IBM's modifications been published to "the community"? NO. They are, yes, "proprietary" extensions. From IBM's Redbook on running Linux on iSeries: "Linux delivers excellent open source solutions, while OS/400 is a premier integrated platform for business solutions. Linux enables a new stream of e-business applications for the iSeries platform that complements its strength as an integrated core business solution. Linux applications benefit from the iSeries platform's ability to provide resource flexibility, security, reliability, and connectivity to other applications on a single server." So.....why do I need OS/400 if I have Linux? Isn't this a little bit like running Linux in a virtual PC? But, let's get back to the question at hand: Is Microsoft Exchange a proprietary solution running on a proprietary platform produced by an almost exclusively proprietary company (I'm surprised at "almost exclusively"...I'm wondering which part of what MS does you consider to be non-proprietary?)? Exchange supports POP, IMAP/4, TCP/IP, SMTP/MIME, X.400 addressing, etc., etc., etc. Lotus Domino supports most of these things, too, though there are, shall we say, horror stories about customer who've tried using Domino as an IMAP server. Exchange requires the Active Directory, which is proprietary to Microsoft. Domino requires the Domino directory, which is proprietary to Domino. AD can act as a native LDAP directory. Domino can, too, but requires an adapter to do so. AD can be used to provide identity, authentication, and security to all MS apps, and to non-MS apps, as well, including single sign-on. In other words, AD can be used as an organization's authoritative directory. Domino...can't. Notes has a PKI, which is installed and configured by default! When I worked for Lotus, we used to describe Notes certs as X.500 "like". The Microsoft PKI uses standard certs. The native document format for the upcoming release of Office is XML. That is a standard which was jointly sponsored by Microsoft and IBM! In fact, there are many such standards and standards boards which IBM and Microsoft work on together. So what is IBM's response to Microsoft moving to an industry-accepted web service standard as our default document format? IBM throws its weight behind a competing, not yet accepted, not yet broadly implemented, "emerging" standard called OpenDocs, and joins a suit in EMEA against Microsoft assailing MS for, yeah, that's right, anticompetitive behavior because MS is using XML as its native document format in the next version of Office. So, if you can't compete on technology, sue? This idea that Microsoft is the evil empire, and the rest of the technology community are the rebels fighting for what is right is just getting tiresome. Remember, people buy Microsoft software, and nobody is holding a gun to their heads to force them. If there were better solutions, people would buy them!!
And how many customers does IBM know of that are using that connector? From what I understand, it's approaching zero, due to the "least common denominator" functionality the connector provides. For someone accustomed to Notes, there's a fair bit of Notes functionality that doesn't work (can't cluster my mail file, Outlook doesn't really grok doclinks, it doesn't grok things like discontinuous repeating appointments, etc.). For someone accustomed to using Outlook against an Exchange server, same problem -- Notes doesn't grok a repeating appointment with no end date, Notes doesn't know how to put an appointment in my calendar as "tentative" before I even accept it, so that I can see where it fits against my other commitments, etc., etc., etc. Net, Outlook against Domino is a sub-optimal experience for people used to receiving their email in either Domino or Exchange. That said, Outlook is definitely the preferred end-user experience (if you doubt that, just look at the Hannover client -- too bad Lotus lost that court battle against Borland years ago when it was decided that you couldn't patent a UI :) ). So, those people who want an Outlook experience should pressure their companies to move to Exchange!
disclaimer: As my user name implies, I work for MS, after ten years at Lotus, and a few at IBM earlier in my career...)