Notes/Domino 8.5.3 launch dates set

September 9 2011

I've been slowly teasing this out as we near the finish line, but we now have a launch date and activities set up.

Unless something last minute changes, our planned announce/ship date for the Notes/Domino 8.5.3 family is Tuesday, 4 October 2011. We will have new news at the time of launch, so stay tuned for that.

Meanwhile, LotusUserGroup.org has opened registration for the launch webcast, taking place on Thursday, 6 October 2011:

Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.3 provides numerous feature enhancements that benefit end-users, developers and administrators. Come hear about Lotus Notes and iNotes improvements for Mail and C&S; expanded device support, usability and administrative enhancements for Lotus Notes Traveler; performance/scalability improvements for XPages; Domino Designer productivity improvements; and expanded virtualization and data storage enhancements for Domino. In the last but certainly not least category, come hear how 8.5.3 accelerates your ability to find people and content as you embark on becoming a social business.
Registration and further details are available on the virtual user group page, lotususergroup.org/vug >

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes-Domino-8.5  Add/View Comments [45]

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  1. 1  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 9/9/2011 2:07:08 PM

    Thanks for the notice. Got the 4th on my calendar... :-)

  1. 2  Carsten  | 9/9/2011 4:00:12 PM

    I can't wait to hear that anonymous websites are now allowed with Collaboration Express ...

  1. 3  Mike Robinson  | 9/9/2011 4:11:41 PM

    seems like it's turning out to be more than just a x.x.1 upgrade...can't wait!

  1. 4  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/9/2011 5:19:11 PM

    @2 I don't think you're going to hear that. I will explain why on the 4th.

  1. 5  Andy Steven  | 9/9/2011 9:47:32 PM

    Looking forward to it, 13 months since 8.5.2, should be some biggies in there I hope.

  1. 6  Vaughan Rivett http://www.vaughanrivett.co.nz | 9/10/2011 5:01:28 AM

    Wow, that's my birthday!

  1. 7  John Foldager http://izone.dk | 9/11/2011 1:43:51 AM

    @4 You gotta be kidding, right? ;o)

    Looking forward to a really good explanation and a new license option for existing (especially small) customers to turn their "illegal" websites into legal ones. I know there are many small (read: smaller than US-measured-small) companies out there who have been waiting for 8.5.3 and the new licenses for quite some time.

    Does this have something to do with the new XWorks server that should be able to compete with the freebies alternatives?

    Can't wait anymore... September will be longer than usual :-D

  1. 8  Matteo Bisi http://www.msbiro.net | 9/12/2011 6:07:32 AM

    Well, reminder wrote in calendar!

    Waiting for new Traveler!

  1. 9  Patrick Kwinten http://quintessens.wordpress.com | 9/12/2011 7:18:49 AM

    Hello Ed,

    Any chance there will be updates for IBM templates like teamroom, discussion, blog and document library?

  1. 10  Rob Novak http://www.lotusrockstar.com | 9/12/2011 1:56:19 PM

    Looking forward to the release especially improvements in Designer and XPages. That said I would really like to see an effort undertaken to fit products like Sametime Community server and Quickr Domino onto Domino 8.5.3 (and generally any major release, point or not) in a more rapid fashion. If nothing else, for the stability and security improvements.

  1. 11  Dan Huddlestun  | 9/12/2011 2:24:59 PM

    Do you know what the updates to CK Editor are? The fact that relative links didn't work in 8.5.2 stopped our implementation of that.

  1. 12  Andrew Luder http://notestools.com | 9/12/2011 7:07:24 PM

    Hi Ed,

    Darren mentions in his blog ( { Link } ) one of the new 853 features is "Code aggregation makes JS and CSS files much faster to load". How does this compare to the Domino Accelerator Pack from { Link } ?

  1. 13  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/12/2011 9:32:51 PM

    @12 not familiar with it.

    @9/11 I'll have to check!

  1. 14  Cedric Blanchard  | 9/13/2011 2:53:14 AM

    Hi Ed,

    Any date for the other languages like French ?

  1. 15  Teoman ONAY  | 9/13/2011 4:11:20 AM

    Hello Ed,

    Any improvement regarding Citrix ? We have a lot of problems with Win2008 R2 + XenApp 6

  1. 16  William Smith  | 9/13/2011 7:59:49 AM

    @15 - I believe page 14 of Ed's keynote presentation from this post mentions XenApp6 improvements and 64-bit fixes:

    { Link }

  1. 17  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/13/2011 8:31:13 AM

    @14 should be GA+30 days.

  1. 18  Mark Lepisto  | 9/13/2011 10:50:58 AM

    After just completing an engagement with IBM ISSL to do some minor modifications to the iNotes mail template which were much harder than they needed to be, I sure hope at some point you plan to redesign the entire mail template using X-pages to modernize it and make it much easier to customize. Perhaps not in the 8.5.X timeframe, but for Notes Next perhaps?

  1. 19  Felix Canto  | 9/13/2011 11:12:26 AM

    Hi Ed,

    Looking forward to the relational database support. Congrats with this extension!

    { Link }

  1. 20  John Foldager http://izone.dk | 9/14/2011 1:19:48 AM

    @7 I guess my questions will not be answered until 4th October :-D

  1. 21  Werner Motzet  | 9/14/2011 9:59:38 AM

    Gabriella posted yesterday a very important info about the 8.5.3 Client:

    { Link }

    and the IBM-Technote you will find her:

    { Link }

    So please be aware of this incompatibility.

    Kind regards

    Werner

  1. 22  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/14/2011 11:25:37 AM

    @7/20 - I have started to respond to your comment several times. I can't really fully answer without the full context of what we publish/announce next month.

    What I will say is that while I very much wanted to move in the direction of making a Collaboration Express license more flexible in terms of anonymous usage, I was unable to do so in the context of other changes. But it was never a promised, committed, guaranteed direction, so I am a little uncomfortable with the thought that you had customers waiting on a potential change.

  1. 23  Per Andersen http://www.crossware.co.nz | 9/14/2011 3:51:52 PM

    Sounds great another great gift on my birthday !!!

  1. 24  John Foldager http://izone.dk | 9/15/2011 5:23:41 AM

    @22 I know it wasn't a promise, since you didn't mention it on { Link } . Some other folks did and I totally agree with them that anonymous website access should be a 'no brainer' to make it possible for XPages on Domino to compete with LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) etc. Anyway... thanks for pointing out now that we will NOT get anonymous website access.

    I'll wait and see what October 4th will bring. Hopefully something usefull for the XWorks server in regards to this issue :o)

  1. 25  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/15/2011 8:35:25 AM

    @24 you won't get it in Collab Express but there are several other relatively-low-cost ways to buy a Domino server for anonymous web access. Using subcapacity you can get down under 100 PVUs even today for Utility Express, Enterprise Server. And there will be an additional option.

  1. 26  Leif Lagebrand  | 9/15/2011 9:10:39 AM

    @11. The editor (CKEditor) has, even in 8.5.3 CD5, some major flaws. You can't align a picture and it doesn't remember resizing. CKEDitor is good but the integration in Xpages lacks settings for picture. That stopped are use of Xpages for a CMS. I don't know if this will be fixed when shipping. If not that's very bad. Xpages has so much but not a useful editor.

  1. 27  Kevin Mort  | 9/15/2011 1:02:25 PM

    When could we expect that all of the 8.5.3 updates will be included into LotusLive offerings?

  1. 28  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/15/2011 1:33:45 PM

    @27 well, like what? The client 8.5.3 will be supported by LotusLive Notes immediately or almost immediately. On the server side, there are limited improvements in Domino from a core/admin perspective in 8.5.3. Traveler will get updated to 8.5.3 in LotusLive Notes around end of year.

  1. 29  Kevin Mort  | 9/17/2011 7:50:26 PM

    @28 That probably covers it. : ) Thanks.

  1. 30  Martin Louie  | 9/19/2011 9:37:55 AM

    Does the 8.5.3 client require the server also to be 8.5.3? I am concerned that XPages applications created by Designer 8.5.3 will be incompatible with the libraries (especially the XPages extension libraries) on the server which are still 8.5.2.

  1. 31  John Foldager http://izone.dk | 9/19/2011 9:55:58 AM

    @25 Ed I'm not going to start this conversation all over again, as I'm eargerly waiting for the October 4th announcement regarding "XWorks Server" and "an additional option" (ref @25). However, I need you to understand that some countries outside US have more small businesses than large ones; an example is Denmark. I've just got a quote for a Domino Utility Express Server to see how low one can go for a Domino XPages powered website. As per the company who I got the quote from the only restrictions are: a) The company can't have more than 1000 employees, b) Domino can not use cluster, billing, LDAP quieries, Directory Assistance. This is all okay for most companies here in Denmark. Price: DKK 20,900.00 which is USD 3,861.29 (as of per today) for 100 PVUs. This could probably go down to 70 PVUs or so for some companies if the buy an additional computer with a processor that is equal to 70 PVUs; in which case the price would be USD 2,702.90 (not including an additional server if required).

    This price is high compared to PHP-based webhotels (website, emails, administration panel etc.) that customers can get for DKK 9.00 to 29.00 per month; between USD 1.66 and USD 5.36. I know there is no integration to back-end systems unless the company manually upload data etc. However, this is what we have to compete against everytime someone says that 'Domino is too expensive' initially.

    I agree that Domino customers are more willing to buy additional licenses because they know the platform, but we are not going to sell Domino to customers with the current license costs.

    I sincerely hope that IBM knows this and that sometime in the 'near future' they will try to figure out a much better approach and much better price for XPages websites (with possibility to register a billion users). If they did I'm sure it would be much easier to add Notes Express licenses afterwards.

    This was my last 2 cents before the October announcement... I promise ;o)

    Anyway.... I do like reading your blog... and I LOVE XPages :o)

  1. 32  Frédéric Fanchamps  | 9/20/2011 2:32:10 AM

    We will be very happy to upgrade to 8.5.3

    We are now busy chosing between GIT and Mercurial.

    From a Designer 8.5.3 integration point of view, is there any reason to prefer GIT or Mercurial?

  1. 33  Anna   | 9/20/2011 11:17:39 AM

    Will we be getting a 64 Bit Client?

  1. 34  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 9/20/2011 8:52:53 PM

    @25/@31

    IBID. Well stated. There are still small professional shops that need good workflow apps (w or w/o XPages) where the cost going from $1k to $10k with most being a server license immediately throws the project into LAMP.

    Event the MS SBS cobbled together, unscallable, PIA platform allows anonymous access.

    I appreciate you trying. It's not a slam against your hard work. It's just the same issue with a great platform's Express licensing. Clustering was nice, but I only hit this wall with a customer once for this in years, we hit the DA wall a bunch over the years, but the anonymous web site is a wall every time.

    Case-in-point - this blog couldn't even be run on Express without the expensive Utility option. 10K for a corp web site and blog? Most companies don't think so.

    Thanks again for trying, though.

  1. 35  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/20/2011 9:19:20 PM

    @34 that's not correct. A Domino Enterprise Server would be a sufficient license to run this blog. There is no "authenticated access" required. and if I was a small business and needed authenticated access, Utility Express would be sufficient. Both are under $3000 options.

  1. 36  Matteo Bisi http://www.msbiro.net | 9/21/2011 5:13:29 PM

    I know is not on IBM focus, but i renew my request for a Lotus Administrator client mutliplatform (MacOS X an Linux! )

    We like very much the open client idea based on lotus notes and symphony.. but our working client (admin) could not run without windows?!?!

    Please please please ! :-)

  1. 37  Per Andersen http://www.crossware.co.nz | 9/27/2011 4:46:09 AM

    Who was first ? You or Apple to select 4 October ? By the way its my birthday so I will get both notes 8.5.3 and an apple iphone 5. Anything else I should be aware of ?

  1. 38  Bruce Williams  | 9/27/2011 10:40:42 PM

    Hey Ed,

    Our testing of Xenapp 6 and latest Notes 8.5.3 beta shows issues with calendaring and timezone support using the Standard client.

    Eclipse-based calendar views are using the timezone of the server and not the local client. It looks like the java client is not recognising the local client's timezone settings.

    I am hoping that this is fixed in the upcoming production code.

  1. 39  Michael Niewiera  | 9/30/2011 6:32:25 AM

    @36 This is something i´m also waiting for...!

  1. 40  Matteo Bisi http://www.msbiro.net | 10/3/2011 11:22:04 AM

    @39 We are not Alone ! I want to believe ! :-)

  1. 41  Vlado Damjanovski http://www.damjanovski.com | 10/4/2011 12:43:43 AM

    When somebody says 4 October, he/she should qualify - what time zone !?!?

    We live in a global village, and here in Australia it is 4 October (nearly 5PM).

    No news as far as I can see :-(

    All I want is to have Lotus behave like a "normal program" - i.e. not crashing and shutting down on my Mac OS X each day :-(, and be able to perform half a decent search by topic or name or anything...

    IBM is a pale name today in regards to what it used to be (unfortunately).

  1. 42  Muhammad Saleem  | 10/4/2011 8:28:50 AM

    is domino 8.5.3 is coming with 64 bit support on LINUX>>>>>>??????????????

  1. 43  Thomas Bahn http://www.assono.de/blog | 10/12/2011 8:07:25 AM

    @42: Yes and no!

    There is a 64bit version for Linux, but only fot zLinux. :-(

  1. 44  John Parker  | 12/1/2011 9:57:40 AM

    Ed, any comments regarding the CKEditor (@11, @26)? You guys promote the heck out of XPages, but I have still found dead ends every time I go to implement something.

    The fact that you can't align or resize an image even though the editor leads you to believe you can is a show stopper.