Check this out:
There will be a new release of Exchange. We're not ready to announce when that is or what it is.Mr. Thompson, I have just one thing to say -- how dare you criticize the Lotus roadmap.
Q: So there might be a version of Exchange before Longhorn?I say again, Mr. Thompson. How dare you criticize the Lotus Domino roadmap, when it is published, documented, committed, and in beta.
It is possible. What we will do is evolve Exchange in a way that addresses customer needs. I know that may sound like a cop-out, but that is the reality.
Q: You said you're going to change the Exchange data store. When do you see that happening?How dare you criticize the Lotus roadmap!
We have not decided when we're going to do that.
Link: Computerworld: Q&A: Microsoft's Thompson talks about Exchange plans >
Post a Comment
Another day of this and you'll have those veins in your head permanently protruding. Stick it to 'em, Ed, but let's hold off on challenging Thompson to a duel. Well, wait until we can at least secure the PPV rights.
Would you like a little cheese and whine to go with that crockpot full of FUD you just served up?
I'd love to see one of the tech rags do a story contrasting the IBM/MS "roadmaps" and show just what's going on here...
This has got to be the most entertaining week of blogging! I know that the stress has to be grating on you, but for your readers, I think that most of us are really enjoying this. Especially since we aren't there - I don't think that we could be silent for long. Well, that and our 'Sphere shirts would give us away. :-)
I'm lovin' it!!!
The only stress Ed is going to have is how to continue to package the updated MS Roadmap/Graveyard and these new precious quotes into a few slides into his updated "Boss Loves Microsoft..." presentation without making it look like a "2004 MS Tech-Ed Highlights" show. Looks like MS has again adopted their ad campaign from the mid-'90's. Anyone remember, "Where do you want to go today?"? Trouble is, it appears not even MS knows where they want to go today, tomorrow, let alone 3 years from now. Can you imagine what the press would ever do to IBM if Ambuj stood before a LS crowd (or what we would do!) and said, "We don't know when the next release of Domino will be out or what enhancements it will include, but we're committed to the next SPR, I just can't tell you when that would be."
I believe the comments here are valid, but I have a different question. How can we benefit from this lack of clarity? How can we communicate this to decision makers? Someone in an earlier post has lived through two Domino to Exchange migrations and the results were not better. How do we make people aware of this?
Rather than fault MS for their direction, how do we show the value/power of IBM's direction? More importantly how do we do that to non-techies. Most of us would agree that the Exchange/Domino decision is often (always?) made by non-techs and that is the primary reason IBM does not have a higher win ratio.
How do we convert the chorus of voices in the wilderness to a message heard at the C level?
Microsft's current stance on Exchange is good for Notes. Now their customers are more confused then ever.....
"David Thompson, a Microsoft corporate vice president who has been in charge of the Exchange Server group since early this year" ... "I honestly don't know when Kodiak was planned for. ... I wasn't involved with setting the Kodiak plan a couple of years ago. " You telling me the VP of Exchange does not even know what they plans for his product were (are)... wow I want that type of job.
Where does he criticise the Lotus raodmap though?
Ed are you seriously trying to say that you think Lotus' "roadmap" is better than Microsoft's?
It seems to me as a neutral observer that Lotus' roadmap is 100% about moving to other IBM technologies (J2EE, Portal, DB2). I don't see anything at all, nothing, zero, in terms of innovation.
Microsoft are being more honest I think. They're releasing updates and not calling them "rNext" like IBM is doing.
I'm sorry, I might have missed it -- what "updates" are MS releasing? There's nothing other than a service pack on the 04 calendar, and a different product (Edge Services) on the 05 calendar. And then beyond that, they are moving to different technologies -- Longhorn, 64 bit, SQL Server.
IBM's roadmap has the ability to keep going on Notes/Domino, and the ability to adopt J2EE-based infrastructure as/when needed. And it's a published roadmap with release numbers and dates. That's the difference.
Oh and what does "Rnext" have to do with anything? That was the codename for Notes/Domino 6.
"It seems to me as a neutral observer that Lotus' roadmap is 100% about moving to other IBM technologies (J2EE, Portal, DB2). I don't see anything at all, nothing, zero, in terms of innovation." Have you read anything at all whatsoever about IBM's plans in the last year? They have made it crystal clear that Lotus will be continuing Notes/Domino development through version 9, and that this will include an embracing of, but not a forced-migration to, J2EE technologies. And "zero innovation?" So integrated presence awareness (Notes 6.5), IBM Community Tools, Workplace 2.0, Domino 7 -- these all simply don't exist? Or do they offer nothing new? Please share with us the vast library of products already on the market that deliver these capabilities on an enterprise scale. I'm eager to know who's coattails Lotus is on these days.
>They have made it crystal clear that Lotus will be continuing Notes/Domino development through version 9, and that this will include an embracing of, but not a forced-migration to, J2EE technologies.
You confirm my point - that the future versions are about being able to choose other IBM technologies. Not much else.
>And "zero innovation?" So integrated presence awareness (Notes 6.5),
Already in Outlook
>IBM Community Tools,
Oh please. Have you seen it?
>Workplace 2.0
What is it? Worstplace 1.0 with OpenOffice ripped off. Name a single deployment.
>Domino 7
Is Domino with DB2 support right?
>these all simply don't exist?
they all do of course
>Or do they offer nothing new?
No innovation, just IBM integration.
>Please share with us the vast library of products already on the market that deliver these capabilities on an enterprise scale.
This will really upset you I know, but Microsoft for one. That is why Ed is so down about TechEd. Microsoft is pulling away from Lotus now in the collaboration race and Lotus is too busy learning Websphere and DB2 to notice.
>I'm eager to know who's coattails Lotus is on these days
Nathan you are too close to Lotus to be neutral. Anyone, anyone who says anything remotely supportive on MS gets deluged by you, Ed, or other "inner circle" members.
The fact is MS does some good stuff. And I for one saw innovation at Tech Ed. My post tried to point out to Ed that there is as much meat on Microsoft's bone as there is on IBM's.
You continue to only try to point out narrow examples of why you're right and the rest of us are wrong.
I don't mind you visiting, commenting, and challenging -- if you care to elaborate. Also, what is with the use of "we" in reference to IBM ?
I agree with some of the points made here. There's a lot of R&D going in to the Workplace product, R&D that could be spent improving other existing products that we use today (ahem, Notes and Domino). HTML rendering needs an overhaul. ND7 beta1 has a few tweaks to Mail and Calendaring, but the only big feature is DB/2 integration. And yes, IBM wants customers to move down "the roadmap" to WebSphere and Portal. IBM is VERY innovative, and so is Apple. I really believe that Microsoft's answer to "collaboration" has always been their Windows OS. It seems like a wierd idea, I know, but consider if you OWNED the operating system, and the most popular "office suite", it would have a huge impact on the products you create, and not in a good way. Microsoft is dumping all their resources in to the next version of Windows, and that includes revisions to all their existing products. This dragon will wake up in a few years, and that's when it will get really interesting.
Do I have a need for IBM's Workplace? No, at least not today. What do I need? Easy to use Web development tools for JSP, Domino, and backend database integration. We're evaluating ILWWCM this month.
Ricky, since when have J2EE and "portal" been classed as "IBM technologies"?
Sure, WebSphere, Workplace and DB2 fall into that category, but saying that J2EE == IBM is, oh I don't know, like saying MS own XML and web services... :-)