Someone asked me offline if I was "surprised" by the Ubuntu announcement last week. Far from it, I wanted to say something weeks ago (but obviously couldn't), when a meme was going around about how important it is to be supporting a "free" Linux distribution. I'm excited by adding another to the list.
In an announcement this week at the Lotusphere 2008 conference in Orlando, IBM said that it will provide full support for Ubuntu Linux with Lotus Notes 8.5 and Lotus Symphony using its Open Collaboration Client software, which is based on open standards.Link: Computerworld: Lotus Notes 8.5 to fully support Ubuntu Linux 7.10 in mid-2008 >
Antony Satyadas, chief competitive marketing officer for IBM Lotus, said the Ubuntu support for Notes and Symphony were a direct response to demand from customers. Lotus Notes 8.0.1 has limited support for Ubuntu Linux, but customers have asked for broader capabilities, he said. ...
Mark Murphy, vice president of alliances at Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, said in a statement that the availability of Notes and Symphony for use with Ubuntu will be a "win for customers everywhere. Canonical is committed to bringing the best available productivity tools to its users on an open platform. Ubuntu users will now have an outstanding choice with Lotus Notes, while businesses will have a great choice with Lotus Domino. From a technical viewpoint, we are impressed how Lotus leverages the Eclipse platform to build and deliver rich client applications. This is an exciting development for Ubuntu users, too."
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- 2
Karl-Henry Martinsson | 1/28/2008 7:03:55 AM
I saw a third-party group calendar at Lotusphere, if you need more advanced functionality you may want to look at that product or some other third-party tool.
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Bill Brown | 1/28/2008 7:06:50 AM
I'm encouraged by the support for Ubuntu! I'd like to see an Admin client for Linux too! Designer would be nice for me as well, but not as necessary.
Any word when 8.5 betas will be out for platforms other than Mac OS? I would be happy to beta 8.5 on Ubuntu, my platform of choice.
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Henning Heinz | 1/28/2008 7:58:36 AM
With Linux being my preferred platform I like the announcement. I hope that IBM will switch to supporting the Long Term support versions (LTS) of Ubuntu as only those have 3 years update support for desktops and 5 years for servers.
The current LTS (6.0.6) is probably too old for 8.5 but support for 7.10 already ends in 2009. So if 8.5 comes out this fall, 7.10 will already go end of life soon. Makes only little sense to me. The next LTS Ubuntu release is planned for April 2008 and I hope this will become the supported release for 8.5.
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Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/28/2008 8:16:20 AM
@1 the challenge as always is to juggle. The market has asked for Ubuntu support, so it's coming. The market has also asked for group calendar solutions. In addition to third-party options, there is some new work planned for Notes 8.5 which was previewed at Lotusphere.
@3 Not sure yet. Note that the 8.0.1 beta/release of Notes will likely run on Ubuntu, but isn't officially supported. The funniest part of this announcement was managing expectations when one of the design partners discovered that it was working on Ubuntu..in November. :)
- 6
Danny Lawrence | 1/28/2008 10:14:02 AM
@3 Firefox + Webadmin.nsf = Linux Admin client!
It isn't perfect but it does a whole lot.
- 7
Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 1/28/2008 2:10:14 PM
@6: Only if you still use FireFox 1.x:
This browser is not supported: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
The IBM Lotus Domino Web Administrator 7 currently works with the following browsers:
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x or higher (on Microsoft Windows platforms only)
* Mozilla Navigator 1.4x or higher
* Mozilla Firefox 1.0x or higher
- 8
Josef Prusa | 1/28/2008 3:42:50 PM
@5 Well, in my experience Notes 8.0 works quite OK on Ubuntu (Feisty and Gutsy and even on LinuxMint) with a little bit of tinkering. The only notable exception is the printing support. I really have to print something out from time to time...
Hope 8.0.1 will help a bit.
- 9
Steven | 1/28/2008 4:49:14 PM
You know this really gonna piss off the hard-core Ubuntu guys/gals that will now have to pick a new distribution that is still not "mainstream".
- 10
Bill Brown | 1/29/2008 8:02:13 AM
@6 Um, close, but not quite.
@7 Works fine on Firefox 2.0.11 on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. Must be a Windows thing. :)
@9 There are plenty to chose from, and they can always roll their own if they want.
- 11
Michael | 2/1/2008 9:07:57 AM
How about a Evolution plugin for Lotus Notes? I'm sure the new Eclipse-based Notes is great and all, but would it be too much to ask for Evolution integration, since Evolution is already integrated into the rest of Gnome? I can already access Sametime with Pidgin(Gaim).
- 12
Bill Malchisky http://www.EffectiveSoftware.com | 2/1/2008 1:36:49 PM
@6, the Web Admin Client (WAC) has a lot of foibles, some of which I presented to the Dev Team in their lab at LS08. Considering an article therein as well. In theory, the WAC does 90% of what the W32 Admin Client does. Unfortunately, the 10% delta creates a set of features that are invaluable to me, thus creating frustration with the tool. Additionally, WAC has the added bonus of providing real-time stats. Overall, an Eclipse-based Admin client would be more preferable, for regular use.
@7, @10: The WAC only works on a Domino 7 server with FF1.x; you need D8 to run FF2; there is a version check in the template that blocks usage of FF2 on Linux and Mac, just after authenticating. Going to an D8 server allows one to manage the desired server.
@11, so are you saying that you want Notes (an integrated e-mail product) to have a plug-in for another integrated e-mail product? I must be missing something with your query.
hello,
Normal-User and normal customer wish a better Groupcalender (interface and function)and better Office-connection and ... but not Ubuntu.
Christian