Notes/Domino 6.5.4 and 6.0.5 posted

April 5 2005

As several bloggers noted today, the downloads for Notes/Domino 6.5.4 and 6.0.5 are now available from the IBM Passport Advantage and PartnerWorld download sites.  This is a major maintenance release, with more issues addressed than typically has been the case.  A couple of areas are notable:  

  • The HTML rendering in the Notes client is substantially improved
  • Domino Access for MS-Outlook has several significant enhancements.  I know a dozen or more of our pilot customers are ready to roll DAMO into production with this release.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [35]

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  1. 1  roberdan  | 4/6/2005 1:41:24 AM

    Hi, do you have any comparison between WorkPlace and Notes 6.05? thx!

  1. 2  Henning Heinz  | 4/6/2005 3:19:27 AM

    And unfortunately I can already confirm that the Server Restart Notification works, at least on Linux :o). That is a great feature by the way.

  1. 3  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 4/6/2005 3:22:16 AM

    Already deployed and stable in my test environment.

  1. 4  Justin Freeman http://blog.agileware.net | 4/6/2005 5:01:37 AM

    @2 Server restart notification has been working on Linux for a while.

    Great job Lotus - we upgraded all our 3 production servers today in 15 minutes. Piece-o-cake upgrade. Awesome.

  1. 5  Justin Freeman http://blog.agileware.net | 4/6/2005 5:04:28 AM

    Oops... I mean great job IBM :)

  1. 6  Roberto Boccadoro  | 4/6/2005 6:01:34 AM

    @1 What exactly are you interested in ? You want to compare messaging functionalities ? You can't compare Notes and the Workplace in general.

    RoB

  1. 7  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 4/6/2005 6:20:49 AM

    Dittos on the great job. Some of my problem HTML messages are much more readable. Just last week I had a VP asking me about an HTML message he received that wasn't doing a word wrap. I looked at it with 6.5.4 yesterday and it appears to be much better!

    @Ed, don't forget the new "lite ui" for DWA in 6.5.4 (and a 6.5.3 hotfix). This is pretty slick. Also, regardless of the DWA UI, major performance enhancements were made for DWA. The minimum system requirements for clients was dropped by 1/2. On a slower machine I have my DWA is just as fast on my slower cluster iSeries as my 6.5.3 DWA on my production iSeries! Looking forward to putting it on my production box!

    I upgraded 3 servers yesterday - 1 Linux and 2 iSeries. Now a Win2K and 3 iSeries servers to go...

  1. 8  skip  | 4/6/2005 6:21:34 AM

    Tried to order the CD's but the process would not work - received the following: "Following error occurred while processing your request. No products found. " Verified that I had the 6.5.4 selected and tried again - to no avail.

  1. 9  AJP  | 4/6/2005 6:37:19 AM

    Ed, please can you do something about the file names. I started the down loads last night, came in this morning and as usual I have no idea which file is which. Yes I know I should have written them down but wouldn't it be simpler to name them something easily recognisable such as:

    Cmac605.hqx (Client Mac 6.0.5), instead of C82w8na.hqx

    Cmac654.hqx (Client Mac 6.5.4), instead of C82bnna.hqx

    SlxI654.tar (Server Linux Intel 6.5.4), instead of c82btna.tar

    etc..

    It is these small things that make our stressed lives so much ealsier.

    =:0)

  1. 10  Henning Heinz  | 4/6/2005 7:55:50 AM

    To Justin(4),

    yes I know that Server Restart Notification works fine on Linux but it is a feature that I really like but prefer not to see working. In more clear words. My server said good-bye (with a nsd) at 06:30AM after a quick upgrade yesterday. I am not used to crashes, it normally just works. It is not a big deal anyway.

  1. 11  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 4/6/2005 8:02:35 AM

    @5 - the CDs aren't yet available, I think it will take three weeks or so. Surprised they are order-able already.

  1. 12  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 4/6/2005 8:22:02 AM

    @9 - I agree about the filenames. Can they be more cryptic? I generally download and extract each file to a separate folder.

    By the way, I love the java download manager that IBM has at the PA site! Multiple connections per file, restarts, fast... I was hitting around 3000KB (not kb) per second yesterday! Makes downloading that iSeries installer not so difficult.

  1. 13  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 4/6/2005 8:24:25 AM

    @9 - I generally download to different folders (i download internation language versions too) "Server" "UK" "UK - ALL" "French" "French All" etc. Make it loads easier and I can unzip them right in the destination folder.

  1. 14  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 4/6/2005 9:10:36 AM

    Just found out about the new custom password policies in 6.5.4

    Very nice! { Link }

  1. 15  Corey Kimball  | 4/6/2005 11:23:48 AM

    @9 - I usually change the name of the file in the save as box. I've been doing this for many years and haven't had a problem yet. I use names like "r654ClientWindows", etc..

  1. 16  AJP  | 4/6/2005 11:45:19 AM

    @12, @13, @15, thanks! These are all very sensible simple solutions that make me feel more stupid than I did this morning ;0)

  1. 17  Dick Stagnone http://www.forbes.com/enterprisetech/2005/04/06/cz_dl_0406notes.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=#Static | 4/6/2005 12:05:09 PM

    Here is the begining....

    The marketing folks in IBM's Lotus division are starting to sound like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who insists he's winning a fight even as he loses both arms and legs: "'Tis but a scratch," the Black Knight declares after one arm is lopped off. "Just a flesh wound," he says after losing the other. "I'm invincible!"

    I love that movie.....

    { Link }

  1. 18  skip  | 4/6/2005 12:32:31 PM

    Forbes has a history of being down on Notes - declaring a long time ago that it was dead.

  1. 19  Tony S Lee  | 4/6/2005 12:34:19 PM

    @17 - His articles are (very) poorly researched and he tends to bash anything that is not Microsoft. Here is a quote from one his Linux / open source rants:

    "Linux geeks howled a bit, but then wrote off SCO as a bunch of sleazebags and went back to playing live-action roleplaying (LARP) games in their mothers' basements, or whatever it is they do when they're not writing device drivers and complaining about clueless end users. "

    Liken him to Rush Limbaugh but with Microsoft as his "supreme being". Surprised he is at Forbes.

  1. 20  Bruce Elgort http://www.bruceelgort.com | 4/6/2005 12:35:53 PM

    It looks like many of the issues we requested over the last six months have been addressed and included in the 6.5.4 QMR. Try to find this level of continous improvment and support with products from M$.

    Bruce

  1. 21  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 4/6/2005 3:51:07 PM

    @20 - Agreed - I'm liking 6.5.4 so far.

    @17 - Is that guy a M$ employee? Definitely not a real journalist. Sad thing is that he's in MS's pocket and CEOs read Forbes. Can't wait until my Director asks me about that one...

  1. 22  John Rowland  | 4/6/2005 5:05:16 PM

    The HTML rendering improvements: is the improvement in the client or the server? IOW, if I am still running a 6.5.1 server and upgrade my client to 6.5.4 will the rendering improve, or reversing the scenario, if I upgrade the server but am still running a 6.5.1 client? Thanks.

    John

  1. 23  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 4/6/2005 8:22:34 PM

    @22: I am pretty sure it's exclusively in the client.

  1. 24    | 4/7/2005 2:40:12 AM

    @17 - Astonishing that the author should write about Notes market share rather than focus on just how many CIOs have been duped into buying poorly designed and built competitive products. It is laughable. It really is.

  1. 25  Josef  | 4/7/2005 2:48:50 AM

    Has 6.5.4 been posted already? Could not find it at notes.net (er - what is the right name of the site?). I was - I think, I am never quite sure I am in - able to check my PA site yesterday and it was not there.

  1. 26  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 4/7/2005 4:08:25 AM

    It's definitely on PA/Partnerworld. Just do a search on 6.5.4 and it will pop up.

  1. 27  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 4/7/2005 6:17:26 AM

    @25 - Yes, it's at the PA site.

    @HTML fixes - they are exclusive to the client. I'm running 6.5.4 client with 6.5.3FP1 server and I can tell a difference in HTML.

    For more info on the specific fixes check out my blog.

  1. 28  Paul Robichaux http://www.e2ksecurity.com | 4/7/2005 8:25:51 AM

    @17: ironically, that's one of the factors Lyons mentioned in his article: the automatic tendency of some folks to dismiss any critic as a Microsoft shill.

  1. 29  Ben Poole http://www.benpoole.com | 4/7/2005 9:58:26 AM

    Actually, I dismiss Lyons' point of view for entirely different reasons -- not least his recent actions (documented elsewhere this week).

  1. 30  Samuel deHuszar Allen  | 4/7/2005 2:43:49 PM

    I love the fine editorial scrutiny of resorting to "some say" as "proof" that Notes is more expensive to buy and maintain.

    "Who says, buddy?" Someone, apparently.

    Personally, I paid ~$150 to get an express license which gives me the rough equivilent of about 10 different Microsoft server products, plus a rich/web client (my preferrence as to which gets used) running on a Linux server (SuSE Pro $80) with which I can integrate 1000's of pro-grade tools and services.

    Oh well. Such is our world. Just know, people, that when you tell your customers that you can offer a great and stable product, your actually Notes apologists; zealots even.

    That'll learn ya! :P

    Sam

  1. 31  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 4/7/2005 4:48:55 PM

    @17 - thought #1 - let's wait until the Gartner figures for 2004 are released mid-2005. Thought #2 - let's just suppose for one minute that there were 200 million Exchange users and 100 million Notes users. If the Notes users were gaining far more value from their Notes implementations and getting better ROI, then what sort of victory is that for Microsoft?

  1. 32  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 4/8/2005 10:08:32 AM

    { Link }

  1. 33  Subbu  | 8/10/2007 2:02:41 AM

    Hi

    I use lotus notes 6.0.3. Not satisfied with the performance. Want to down load my mails from notes server to outlook 2003. How to do

  1. 34  Stuart McIntyre http://lotusconnectionsblog.com | 8/10/2007 3:04:05 AM

    @33 Notes 6.0.3 is now nearly 5 years old, you might consider ugrading to a newer release, R7 or even the latest R8 beta. Take a look at { Link } . To use Outlook you would need Domino Access for Miscrosoft Outlook - see { Link } . However, when you see the new Notes 8, I'm sure you won't want to consider the Outlook option ;-)

  1. 35    | 8/10/2007 9:28:35 AM

    Subbu, were you using your mail locally, or on a server?