Early Notes/Domino 8.0.1 feedback

February 21 2008

I spent some time since returning home last night looking at some of the early feedback on Notes/Domino 8.0.1.  In addition to 70+ comments here, bloggers have been covering some of their initial reactions.  They include:

I noticed several comments about the Lotus Notes Traveler registration process here and elsewhere.  As mentioned last week, the separate registration process is required for user tracking (something that can't otherwise be done with a no-cost component).  There have been hundreds of registrations already, with download keys on their way to most registrants.  One good question that was raised is, how do business partners get access to Traveler for use in demonstrations and proof-of-concept kind of situations (as opposed to internal use).  I have raised that question a couple of times this morning, and am expecting an answer by end-of-day tomorrow.

Great to see the excitement -- I'm looking for Notes/Domino 8 deployment references, so if you're happily rolling out the new release, and can be considered for either an IBM internal or a public reference, let me know.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8  Add/View Comments [46]

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  1. 1  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 2/21/2008 12:11:36 PM

    Thanks on the Traveler issue for the BP commnunity.

  1. 2  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/21/2008 12:22:30 PM

    I'll be testing 8.0.1 this weekend and you can bet I'll offer an unfiltered report. :-)

  1. 3  Kevin Mort  | 2/21/2008 1:35:17 PM

    @1 - Yep I'll chime in on that as well, and add that this is similar to the issue of getting BP access to Sametime Gateway connection to Yahoo, AIM etc. Major pain there too.

  1. 4  rajiv thomas http://www.notesboy.com | 2/21/2008 1:45:41 PM

    yeah I would agree too. infact in that post there was a line to call the help line to get the access key and when i did the gentleman that answered my call had no clue what I was talking abt untill I sent him a link to that page. then he had to go check with someone else and stuff and after 35 mins on the phone I get sent to a page to fill in a questionaire and am still waiting on the key.

    I guess this process cld be handled better from the call centre side.

  1. 5  Jim Casale  | 2/21/2008 1:46:02 PM

    In reference to Chris Millers posting...Yes, users may not get any work done. I have been staring at my Virtual Aquarium all day :-P

  1. 6  Mark Hughes  | 2/21/2008 2:07:09 PM

    i ahve had some problems with google gadgets, some links on them do not seem to work, weather channel being one of them. Anyone else having those issues? Will there be an example for google maps? i have tried many ways to do this, maybe its just me.

  1. 7  Mark Hughes  | 2/21/2008 2:45:26 PM

    RSS Feed Reeder counter works now, before if you closed notes and reopened it would forget whichones you have read.

  1. 8  Oliver Regelmann http://n-komm.de/blog | 2/21/2008 3:53:10 PM

    Can't say about the startup time. But it feels really faster working with it.

  1. 9  Brad Stammers  | 2/21/2008 4:40:09 PM

    I've found the startup time to be significantly improved.

    And feeds works behind a proxy at last!

    Widgets are fun to play with as well...can see a lot of potential for time-wasting there.

  1. 10  Captain Kork http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/FlowerPower/ | 2/21/2008 5:23:34 PM

    I found some need thing and some bad thing. Sart up time seems to be a bit faster but i would not say "a lot".

    So for playing at home I'd say some nice features but for work a catastrophy. management decided to stop rollout of 8.0.1 because of many many problems that seem to show up during upgrade......

    @ED

    Any way to get "improved support"?

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/21/2008 5:31:53 PM

    You're going to have to be way more specific. I took a look at the issues you have raised on your blog, and I can't really say much about where support is at without the PMR numbers etc.

  1. 12  Captain Kork http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/FlowerPower/ | 2/21/2008 5:38:34 PM

    you have an offline mail. To long a story to be told here

  1. 13  Andrew Kennel http://akennel.blogspot.com | 2/21/2008 6:13:05 PM

    Start up time is vastly improved. It looks like memory usage may be down as well. We'd been holding off on deploying 8 to our users. I think we may be able to move forward now.

    Still waiting for the Traveler email. I'm really looking forward to testing it as a possible Goodlink replacement.

  1. 14  Carlos L Rivera  | 2/21/2008 6:25:58 PM

    Does Lotus have plans to update the Domino Unified Communications for Cisco? We would like to upgrade to Domino 8 but the lastest version of DUCS doesn't support it.

  1. 15  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 2/21/2008 6:58:06 PM

    @14 - Seconded! The statement when 8 was released was that DUCS for Cisco would be supported in 8.0.1, but I haven't found anything else about it.

  1. 16  Bill Geimer  | 2/21/2008 7:00:34 PM

    Nice upgrade. Much improved smarticon ribbon and controls in general. Sad that RSS feeds still do not work right through proxy servers for this blog. It does get here, but according to Notes 8.0.1, the most current entry in www.edbrill.com is "2015", dated January 24, 2008. Unsubscribe and it goes away; resubscribe and it downloads the same old stuff again. Yes, I opened a ticket with support a month ago for 8.0, but after days of trying to explain to the rep. what an RSS feed was, all she would say is that she did not subscribe to your blog. I let them close the ticket. I do not know quite what is wrong, as the same proxy server works with Firefox 2.0 and Outlook 2007, which see the most current entries from this feed. Notes 8.0.1 works fine with feeds from Infoworld and Secure Computing. It just does not seem to like the Notes 8 xml feed.

  1. 17  skip  | 2/21/2008 7:13:21 PM

    Start up time is improved and also feels much faster.

  1. 18  Colin Williams  | 2/21/2008 8:09:40 PM

    "The upgrade you are installing is not supported".

    I get this if I try to install AND if I try to remove it using add-remove programs.

    I'm so excited...

    but I just can't install it..

    I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know what to do ohh, ohh ohh...

    *sigh*

  1. 19  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/21/2008 8:09:53 PM

    @16, Bill, it can't be anything about the feed, because that entry isn't even in the current RSS feed for the blog. It must be cached in some way.

    @14/15, I'll try to find an answer.

  1. 20  Samuel deHuszar Allen http://www.essentialforms.com | 2/21/2008 8:58:17 PM

    I'm very pleased with the loading time improvements, but why didn't the Linux client ship with the MyWidgets or LiveText functionality?

    For all the hype about Lotus Notes being cross-platform, without at least announcing later roll-out for Linux versions of things it looks like we're being help up in front of the cameras for good press, but otherwise ignored.

    I've been getting mixed answers from people on the Quickr team as to whether a Linux sideshelf connector will be released for the Linux client!

    This is getting frustrating.

  1. 21  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 2/21/2008 9:11:32 PM

    @18, you need to install the proper one for your setup.

    If you had a mail only client, you need that one or uninstall yours.

    If you had everything(designer/admin) you need that one.

    You can also change the kit install in notes.ini.

    See the forums pointers to a few different docs.

    I had the same problem, then others, but I run a non-standard or approved OS(Vista, non-business) and run notes clients 3-8 so I can't complain. Email me for help if you want.

    One link which helped me was this one:

    { Link }

  1. 22  Chris Whisonant http://bleedyellow.com/blogs/lotusnut | 2/21/2008 9:16:05 PM

    @18 - Colin, you may want to follow the thread at Denny's blog and maybe also check back to see if he gets it resolved:

    { Link }

    Great to see the excitement around this release. Here's a geeky new security feature with 8.0.1:

    { Link }

    Also, Ed, feel free to modify my link in your blogroll... ;)

    I've noticed some improvement in startup (despite what John says, this is where people notice the performance "issues"), but not a lot. I think my laptop is just limited now by the 4,200 rpm drive... :(

    I've never had problems once I'm in the client, though, and this is where the focus should really be.

  1. 23  Colin Williams  | 2/21/2008 9:28:57 PM

    Cheers guys...got it sorted! ;)

    Now to start kicking some tires!

  1. 24  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/21/2008 9:39:04 PM

    @22 - updated link!

  1. 25  Bastian Wieczorek http://www.lntoolbox.com | 2/22/2008 3:22:33 AM

    Hello Ed,

    I´m not so a happy R8.0.1 user... I´m a little bit sad that a known problem (Directory ACL lock symbol disappears after Files tab is refreshed, { Link } ) isn´t fixed in 8.0.1. It is known since R6 but it seamed nobody at IBM was able to fix it in tree years (very disappointing). Directory ACL is a very great feature to give the user a cleaner folder overview on the server and prevent them from browsing some system folders. But this damn bug prevent us Admins to use it. When I set a Directory ACL on a Server I need to remember which folder has such a Directory ACL. But I couldn´t do this for all server which we control as a BP. So... maybe it can be fixed in 8.5? I would be very happy if this can be done :)

  1. 26  Steffen Pelz  | 2/22/2008 4:28:26 AM

    Seven new PMRs since starting tests with 8.0.1 isn't the improvement I expected... what's really annoying with 8.0.1 is that errors are not that straight reproducible as they have been in releases before.

    Ed, if you want to have PMR numbers and screenshots - I'll provide you offline ;)

  1. 27  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/22/2008 7:15:18 AM

    @26 well, I am not the support escalation desk, but I am always willing to assist with organizational navigation and ensure you are getting to the right contacts.

  1. 28  Stephan Holowaty http://www.holowaty.de | 2/22/2008 8:08:33 AM

    Hi Ed, hi @all,

    as to your startup time question - no, I'm not happy with the regular startup time of Notes 8.0.1 - takes a long, long time. On the plus side, memory consumption is down considerably.

  1. 29  Peter LaComb  | 2/22/2008 9:15:34 AM

    Only negative I've seen in 8.0.1 so far is that if your password is saved, and is wrong, and you have 'auto connect' enabled, sametime tries to reconnect before I can finish re-typing my password.

  1. 30  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 2/22/2008 10:25:34 AM

    All tongue in cheek as Nathan pointed out. I was showing how fast and cool widgets were. I think we strengthened that by getting the public widget catalog up and running!

    { Link }

  1. 31  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 2/22/2008 10:27:56 AM

    @16 - just grab an RSS widget from Google Gadgets and make it a widget, works way better than the built in reader.

    I bet they fix the RSS stuff eventually

  1. 32  Lawrence Micallef http://lcem.com | 2/22/2008 12:04:33 PM

    Definitely Better on startup time and memory useage.

    Good that Vista Aero no longer objects to Notes's jvm.

    Bad on Quickr 8.0.0.2 not supported with Domino 8.0.1 (unless someone can prove otherwise - see my blog)

    Annoying cannot find a BP registration/download page for Traveler.

  1. 33  Bill Geimer  | 2/22/2008 1:07:01 PM

    @19 - Ed, I agree that its cached somewhere, but since FireFox and Outlook 2007 use the same proxy server / path / NIC / machine and only Notes 8 and 8.0.1 have the problem. Other than the refresh button in the XML feed, do you know of any other caching setting on the Notes client? I do not. And why does it only affect your blog, not ones from Infoworld or Secure Computing ({ Link } and { Link } respectively.)

    @31, Chris, interesting but I have not had a moment to delve into Widgets yet. I will try and see if this phantom cache issue is passed to a widget.

  1. 34  M.Anez http://www.nfprotein.com/ | 2/22/2008 1:59:25 PM

    I haven't explored all of the new features in 8.0.1 yet, but coworkers who've looked over my shoulder today are way more excited about this upgrade than the jump from 7 to 8 a while back- They want widgets. My e-fish are the envy of the cubicle farm.

  1. 35  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 2/22/2008 9:21:15 PM

    FWIW, right after I upgraded to 8.0.1, I started getting consistent hard crashes of Expeditor. { Link }

    It turns out that it was my DUCS v1.2.3 client. This client worked fine in Notes 7 & 8.0, but 8.0.1 seems to hate it.

    My workaround for our Windows users who want 8.0.1 is: { Link }

  1. 36  MarvinK  | 2/23/2008 3:56:23 PM

    Has anyone done testing with the new compression in 8.0.1? We are hoping to use compression as one of the things to justify jumping from 7. Unfortunately, we don't want to end up like those in the discussion forums promising our boss 40+% saved space, only to end up with none:

    { Link }

    If anyone has some suggestions or real-world experience seeing the space savings, please provide any useful info...

  1. 37  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 2/24/2008 9:37:31 PM

    @36 - we have done quite a bit of our own testing. Amounts vary depending on current usage of your data store. DOn't promise 40%. Always start smaller so you look better if you get 40

  1. 38  Steven McArthur  | 2/24/2008 10:36:00 PM

    Has anyone tested or experienced the advertised improvements to DWA over slow links in Domino 801 as yet?

  1. 39  Steffen Pelz  | 2/25/2008 6:27:32 AM

    @27 - if I translated the name of my colleague correctly, you already had a short chat with Jochen... as well as you already know that we stopped 8.0.1 ;)

    I definitely don't want to use you as way to find better support, I just wanted you to know my very personal "early notes/domino 8.0.1 feedback".

  1. 40  Matthias Schneider  | 2/25/2008 10:05:47 AM

    Ed, did you get an answer from IBM regarding the Traveler download for business partners?

  1. 41  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/25/2008 1:26:10 PM

    @40, not yet. I will see where this is at.

  1. 42  Werner Novak  | 2/25/2008 2:01:44 PM

    Will Traveler also been translated to the major languages ?

  1. 43  Steve Mabey http://www.surreycc.gov.uk | 2/26/2008 10:19:46 AM

    x64! Scuse my ignorance folks. On looking at the 8.0.1 Domino server d/l's on the IBM Passport advantage site I see no inclusion of a Linux 64 bit version for x86. I see there is for AIX and Windows. Does Dom4Linux 'auto-switch install' when it detects a 64 bit linux kernel? Comments?

  1. 44  Jason Reid  | 2/27/2008 3:44:13 PM

    For those of you who have got RSS feeds to now work through a proxy - is there any trick to it?

    I can fetch inline HTML images via proxy, & can browse Google Gadgets in Notes using "Notes with Internet Explorer" & "Use the Browser embedded with this client" - so Notes is using the proxy server OK for these things.

    However i cant subscribe to ANY RSS feeds (inbuilt or manually added) and i can't add any Google gadgets ( Even though i can load up the XML file for a gadget in the embedded browser)

    My last company had a BlueCoat proxy server - and RSS feeds never worked through it, I am not sure yet what my new company uses, does it only work with certain proxy servers? Is it a setting on the proxy server? Are the feed reader and Widgets using different ports than the embedded browser?

    Any ideas?

  1. 45  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/27/2008 11:23:50 PM

    @43 - Domino runs as a 32-bit app on 64-bit x86 Linux.

  1. 46  Steve Mabey http://www.surreycc.gov.uk | 2/28/2008 4:58:48 AM

    @45 - Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I find this strange - IBM have been toting Linux as the O/S of choice for Domino. Funny they didn't include this as a 64 bit in 8.0.1. Are there plans for future releases of 8.x I wonder?