Notes and Domino 8 beta 3, in the homestretch

May 24 2007

It's hard to find just the right words...something like a horse race announcer's "Down the stretch they come!"  Beta 3, posted yesterday, downloaded more than 2000 times just in the first twelve hours, has arrived.

This is the third, and last, public beta planned for the Notes/Domino 8 cycle.  It is a "production" build, which means that the debug code that was in prior betas is gone.  You should see much better performance -- the early comments here and in the beta forum seem to confirm this -- and a lot of fit-and-finish work.

Other bits -- Vista support is now ready for testing.  RHEL isn't offiically there yet, but will be at general availability.  The terminology around the "basic" configuration has been cleared up (you'll notice that the term "standard" is basically gone).

There's still a lot of work ahead in the next several weeks.  IBMers have started updating to beta 3 in our internal deployment.  License terms and entitlements are being finalized.  Marketing plans are being finished.

I have been part of every Notes release since 4.0.  I've been excited by a lot of them.  But I have to say, this time, it feels like a whole different level.  I was thinking earlier today, even with blogging during the 6.5 and 7.0 cycles, this is the first release where talking about the beta is all I -want- to do every day.  I discover new things every day, and I (and my colleagues) will be covering more in the coming weeks.  Right up to the finish line.

OK, so where is that finish line?  Can't say quite yet.  Of course we have an internal target, and I'm confident enough in it to have scheduled a vacation starting that day.  But we need your feedback to finish this up, and make Notes 8 successful in every way possible.  Simultaneously, work on 8.0.1, "Domino Next", and beyond is already in progress.  

But let's focus on now.  If you're excited, now would be the time to start saying so.  I would love to get five readers to agree to be press references on 8.0.  Who will be first?

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8  Add/View Comments [37]

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  1. 1  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 5/24/2007 7:18:20 PM

    Am I first? I hear a bell ringing!

    We've already upgraded our internal Linux/Windows server to Notes/Domino 8 Beta 3- and actually our products run great on it :)

  1. 2  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 5/24/2007 9:09:21 PM

    Not a server site, but client only which is rare. Would love to do it, and with our LUG meeting on the 30th :-)

    Yet I understand if I get passed over for someone who is testing the server.

  1. 3  David Russell  | 5/24/2007 9:10:58 PM

    I think everyone involved has done a fantastic job so far, this release is considerably faster. I was also pleased to be able to get it to work on my Mac, (via Virtualbox) - now I can work from home yay! -> { Link }

  1. 4  René Winkelmeyer http://blog.winkelmeyer.com | 5/24/2007 11:01:14 PM

    Running my blog site on the Beta 2 build since it was available and just yesterday updated my client to the new Beta 3 build there is just only one word to say - PERFECT.

    Tomorrow I'll update my blog site to the new build - and then I am going to discover all the new and/or fixed stuff. IBM did a a real great job this time!! Really.

    See you at the DNUG in Dresden.

  1. 5  Stefan Mehlhorn http://www.emailtide.com | 5/24/2007 11:07:43 PM

    This is exciting indeed. The imminent arrival of Notes/Domino V8 has brought much needed clarity and renewed confidence to the customer base and the market in general. Notes is back! That is great news for everyone including us ISV’s. We can’t wait to get the official launch date, but rest assured our solutions will support Domino 8 right out of the gate.

  1. 6  Stefan Krueger  | 5/25/2007 3:37:15 AM

    it´s looks great - it´s running fast - it´s exciting. Stefan

  1. 7  LongLiveLotus  | 5/25/2007 7:28:39 AM

    Ed,

    when you on vacation this year?

    ;-)

  1. 8  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 5/25/2007 7:34:24 AM

    Faster and Sametime works now no matter which location I am logged into!Now if I had an activities server to connect to I can play with it.

  1. 9  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/25/2007 7:35:24 AM

    @7 "mid-year" :-P

  1. 10  Simon Barratt http://apps.fmc.com/blog.nsf | 5/25/2007 8:10:48 AM

    Ed, I don't think I've seen such an obvious improvement in performance from one release to the next, as I have done with beta 3.

    I still see problems with the layout of one Notes application we are running at FMC though :-(

  1. 11  Donnie  | 5/25/2007 9:05:13 AM

    Ed - When I first went to the site to look at the Beta description documents I was a little disappointed to see that Windows 2000 workstation was not a supported platform. (our company is still 85% Windows 2000 Pro on the desktop). But I downloaded it anyway & installed it. Huge improvement over Beta 2! It's crisp! Almost fast even.

    Great job to the team! If Windows 2000 Pro workstation is supported for the Notes client it might be nice to mention that. Otherwise, some people might not be as adventurous as I am & miss out on the chance to test drive it.

    Donnie

  1. 12  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/25/2007 9:07:45 AM

    @11 Donnie, as W2000 workstation is out of mainstream support from Microsoft, we're not in a position to support it. Glad to hear that it is working well despite the "official" line

  1. 13  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 5/25/2007 9:31:47 AM

    @12

    Ed

    We tested both Notes 8 and Notes 8 basic on both Windows XP and Windows 2000 and so far it seems to work on both operating systems. Still a few glitches but better than beta 2. We do not have Vista so we can not test on that platform nor are we planning at this point.

  1. 14  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 5/25/2007 10:25:55 AM

    @11 - IBM is in a tight spot regarding Windows 2000. How can they even begin to provide support if the vendor (Microsoft) has ditched the product? That said, my experience with this type of thing is that if you have issues and call IBM support, they'll support you to the hilt, regardless of the official line.

  1. 15  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 5/25/2007 12:04:06 PM

    I can also confirm Notes 8 works fine on Windows 2000. Unfortunately getting the Standard client on Windows Terminal Services is still beyond my ability.

    @14 - That's been my experience, too. I've had them go so far beyond the call of duty it's mind boggling.

  1. 16  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 5/25/2007 12:31:03 PM

    All the test clients and servers are now beta 3 internally. Improved performance most definitely, but I will know much more as the Linux group fires up throughout the day today

  1. 17  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 5/25/2007 4:07:47 PM

    A funny thing I find is the preferences box which keeps reverting to the back of the screen after i click or change anything on it.

    Also it would be nice to click on the R8 opening screen to make it disappear(like I did in R7 et al) so I can get other work done while I wait for it to load up.

  1. 18  Pankaj Sharma http://www.shreecement.net/sysadmin.nsf | 5/25/2007 9:15:55 PM

    I have been posting my comments all over my favourite Notes sites regarding this great release.

    The quality is really good, stable and fasssssssst.

    Keep up the good work.

  1. 19  Marco Foellmer http://www.ebf.de | 5/26/2007 3:38:00 AM

    - Great Performance.

    - Features are working as expected.

    - imho Activities are the best!

    Thank You very much for the great build!! I love it, it's more than a SuperHumanSoftware.

    Thank You IBM/Lotus!

    Cheers Marco - waiting for the Mac beta. ;-) Thnx.

  1. 20  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 5/26/2007 5:47:37 PM

    Looking a bit ahead to version 8.0.1.... Do you know if Java applet (operative word.... applet) support will be supported on the Mac?

    This is only thing keeping us from saying that we "fully" support the Mac. All other aspects of Project4Domino happily work on Windows, Mac and Linux.

  1. 21  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 5/26/2007 8:16:10 PM

    @20

    I agree. I can not understand why Mac client does not have Java support even in version 7. We have the same issue with customers that use Mac clients.

  1. 22  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 5/26/2007 8:27:05 PM

    @21 - My understanding is that there's an underlying issue with the Java implementation in the Mac OS. It's on Apple's list to fix, but has been delayed until after the iPhone marketing miracle ships (like Lepoard).

  1. 23  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 5/26/2007 11:21:43 PM

    @22

    I thought that Notes use its only Java VM that IBM tweaked for itself. With the Windows client it is part of the Notes client installation which is under the JVM directory. Correctly me if I am wrong.

  1. 24  Bill Geimer  | 5/26/2007 11:55:13 PM

    Beta 3 - overall, very nice. Must faster.

    Embedded Sametime 7.5.1 seems to be a fix or three behind the shipping version, such as errors which write to the log.

    Also, as IBM seems to know but not fix, if you switch IDs in notes, sametime logs off. I can almost live with that when I switch to being postmaster. But when I come back, I cannot log in again. Its like starting over from the install again. I have to but in my community server, my userid, my password, fill in geographical location. By the time I finish, its time to switch IDs again. Very silly, since by sametime ID is different from my Notes ID.

  1. 25  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 5/27/2007 8:36:28 AM

    @23 - Ben Langhinrichs brought up the issue of possible JVM version issues with Notes 8, and Mike Rhodin explained that Notes, Domino and Sametime (7.5.x) include their own embedded JVM's. So as far as that goes, you are correct. I have no idea what impact that may have in an Apple world.

  1. 26  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 5/27/2007 9:39:26 AM

    @23 & @25 - I've heard the same, but for Notes 8 it'll use it's own JVM. Perhaps the Mac OS issue impacts java support in Notes 7, which would rely on the OS' java.

  1. 27  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 5/27/2007 3:53:21 PM

    I was under the impression that Notes has *always* used its own JVM, i.e. it's not just Notes 8.

    OS X has a pretty decent Java implementation, but it's down to Apple to produce JVMs for the OS -- neither Sun nor IBM produce JVMs for use on Apple gear.

    As for what the specific OS X issue is that IBM can't work around, I have no idea. If they told us, maybe we'd understand :o)

  1. 28  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 5/28/2007 10:37:53 AM

    @27

    Is it a licensing issue?

  1. 29  Kerr  | 5/28/2007 1:03:33 PM

    Does Sametime 7.5.x on the mac use the standard Apple jvm?

    For IBM to have a workable versions of the Notes client on the Mac, they are going to have to support Java there. To do this they must either use the Apple JVM or provide their own. I hadn't thought of it in terms of the Sametime client before, but I guess they choose option 1. For the Notes client they seem to be holding off for something. It can't be that they are waiting on Apple to release a Java 6 JVM, so they must be holding out for option 2.

    Are IBM going to release a JVM for Mac? It's not beyond them. Ignore Quarts and just make AWT work with xwindows? How would the swing stuff work? They'll still have to pass all the compatibility tests. As long as it's compatible IBM are goin to be more interested in getting good SWT support rather than making any other window toolkit pretty.

    I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

  1. 30  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 5/28/2007 6:10:01 PM

    @28. Like I said:

    As for what the specific OS X issue is that IBM can't work around, I have no idea. If they told us, maybe we'd understand :o)

    See? I just don't know. But as Kerr points out, ST runs happily enough. I know there's a ong-standing bug with Eclipse and OS X vis a vis Swing, but in the big scheme of things, that's minor. There is no front-nend technical reason why Notes 7-level Java can't run on the Mac.

  1. 31  Bob Baehr http://www.bobbaehr.com | 5/29/2007 5:13:55 AM

    Greetings:

    Well, Notes/Designer/Admin 8, Beta 3 is installed here - and I am speechless! So far, for a Beta, this baby rocks!

    In the words of Borat --- "It's-a-NICE!"

    Congrats to IBM, Lotus, and of course, the Beta community!

    Cheers!

    The Unofficial Poster Child For Lotus Notes and Domino!

  1. 32  Jacob Andersson, Sweden  | 5/29/2007 7:01:19 AM

    It really seems great! I am ready to roll it out internally at our IT department to really test it out.

    Question: Do you have a clue about licensing of Sametime? It is included and you really can do everything in the built-in Sametime-client which earlier was entitled to the "rich" stand-alone client. In my opinion it makes no sense to pay extra for Sametime, it will be hard to defend for the finance people, regardless how great Sametime is.

    Thanks for a great blog! Keep posting!

  1. 33  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/29/2007 7:53:42 AM

    @32, the licensing for Sametime is the same as in prior releases. The Notes license includes a "limited entitlement" to use chat functions within Lotus Notes. Web Conferencing, Voice over IP, location information, screen capture, point to point video, and other features of Sametime require the full Sametime license.

  1. 34  Rajashekhara Gopalarao  | 3/26/2008 12:08:08 AM

    We are trying to setup Lotus Notes Client 8 (Eclipse) on Windows 2000 Pro with SP4 and not able to cross the first screen, it says 'setup was terminated' and comes out with 'Finish' button. Any ideas? If possible, please give me the details of 2000 pro client settings to install LNC 8 without any issues.

  1. 35  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 3/26/2008 3:33:41 AM

    Rajashekhara,

    Check the release Notes. Lotus Notes 8 Client, Standard Configuration (Eclipse) is not supported on Windows 2000, it's a 9 year old operating system. You should prioritise an upgrade to XP, or use the basic client.

  1. 36  Rajashekhara Gopalarao http://www.weberon.com | 4/3/2008 5:50:36 AM

    Dear Rose,

    We confirmed that it works on Windows 2000 Pro provided we have SP4 + the rollup for SP4. We got around 20 clients up with Windows 2000 Pro itself.

  1. 37  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 4/3/2008 5:56:25 AM

    Working and supported are 2 entirely different things. You will get little, or no, assistance for problems you may experience.