When will we get to public beta?

February 19 2007

At Lotusphere, IBM announced that the public beta of Notes/Domino 8 would be available this quarter.  We are getting very close.  I've just finished installing the February 15th build -- admittedly, the first update I've done since beta 1 in November.  I'm very impressed with the work that has gone on during the last three+ months -- and I know you will be, too.

Many of the significant changes in the UI since beta 1 have been covered extensively on Mary Beth Raven's blog.  For me, the adjustment is mainly around terminology -- "Day At-A-Glance" instead of the calendar in the sidebar, for example.   There are definitely some cool new features, even ones that I didn't see in the Lotusphere build -- such as the explicit type-ahead search box in the open menu...

Image:When will we get to public beta?

I will have more to say about the latest Notes 8 build over the next couple of weeks.  Clearly, I need to have my demos ready for Warsaw and Warrington next week.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8  Add/View Comments [20]

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  1. 1  Gerry Murphy  | 2/19/2007 4:02:43 PM

    Just in time for Lotusphere comes to Sydney??

    Pretty please!!

    Gerry

  1. 2  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/19/2007 4:12:21 PM

    Maybe I need to clean out my ears, but I thought I clearly heard Mike Rhodin say "next month" at Lotusphere on at least two separate occasions. I never heard anyone say "this quarter".

  1. 3  Mark Hughes  | 2/19/2007 4:15:23 PM

    I thought Feb as well, i only check 6 or 7 times a day

  1. 4  Volker Weber http://vowe.net/about | 2/19/2007 4:26:42 PM

    Yes, he clearly said next month. But it ain't going to be February if Lotus is still evaluating builds.

  1. 5  Darren Oliver  | 2/19/2007 4:35:26 PM

    And I wouldn't think they'd release the beta with Mary-Beth on holidays (sorry, vacation) after all the work she's put into it ...

    { Link }

  1. 6  Mark Hughes  | 2/19/2007 4:39:44 PM

    Just so we know we were not the only ones expecting it in February here are some other links.

    { Link }

    { Link }

    { Link }

  1. 7  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 2/19/2007 4:39:53 PM

    Mike did say February at Lotusphere. We were just talking about the release at our Office. When Mike said February, I was skeptical especially when Mary Beth is still talking about UI changes on her blog. If it comes out in March, that will be fine with me. I would rather see it get done right than have a major bug in the first beta. That would show down the momentum. Personally, I am still not happy with the UI but it is better.

  1. 8  Bruce Elgort http://www.TakingNotesPodcast.com | 2/19/2007 4:50:12 PM

    How about Mike Rhodin's blog entry:

    { Link }

  1. 9  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 2/19/2007 4:55:20 PM

    Good find, Bruce. :)

  1. 10  Bruce Elgort http://www.TakingNotesPodcast.com | 2/19/2007 4:59:59 PM

    @Charles,

    While Mike did say that it would available "next month" I am of the opinion that I would rather have a good solid beta rather than one that wasn't ready for prime time. A short delay is perfectly accetable.

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/19/2007 6:14:12 PM

    Richard, why do you say you are still not happy with the ui? How much time have you spent hands-on, lotusphere labs or otherwise?

    @all - saying this quarter doesn't necessarily rule out this month :-)

  1. 12  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 2/19/2007 6:24:04 PM

    Ed, Feb. 30th perhaps?

    A la Dec 32?

    Personally having played with 8 in Orlando, I say keep it until you are ready, and it needed some work, I can wait until mid-end of March.

  1. 13  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 2/19/2007 6:56:39 PM

    @11 - With the number of posts MBR has done on the UI, there are a number of aspects that don't have to be seen in action to be evaluated.

    That being said, I'm fairly certain Richard would never be "happy" in the timeframe that's realistic. That is, as an ISV, he's going to want a level of increase in control that is unattainable in an 8 release (ie: complete manipulation of all pull-down menus.) I know how he feels. The single most difficult thing to accomplish as an ISV is to wait for the release that's going to give you what you've asked for.

    *I've* been in that boat for over a decade! It never ends, and the adaptation has to be to thank your lucky stars that you're getting closer. (This is a rule with ALL software, not just IBMs.)

  1. 14  Stuart McIntyre http://quickrblog.com | 2/19/2007 9:46:16 PM

    Mike Rhodin reiterated February when he was over in the UK at the beginning of this month too, so here's hoping that Ed is just being conservative.

    As to the readiness or otherwise of Notes 8, having seen the latest daily builds that some of the UK-based IBMers are using, it looks pretty ready for primetime to me - sure there are some small issues, but there would be no benefit to running the beta programme if it was 100% bug-free and ready for release.

  1. 15  Christer Eklundh  | 2/20/2007 5:19:10 AM

    Hi Ed!

    I would be nice if you posted a picture so we could see how the lasted build looks like! :-)

  1. 16  Sean Jennings  | 2/20/2007 6:20:07 AM

    @11

    Hi Ed, some of us weren't lucky enough to make it to LotusSphere, but our general reactions to the screenshots of the Notes 8 Workspace Mary Beth posted on Jan 8th were not favourable;

    { Link }

    particularly when compared to the ones that were posted months earlier;

    { Link }

    perhaps you could treat those of who didn't make it to Florida with a screen-shot or two of how it looks in the latest build? ;o)

  1. 17  GarryL  | 2/20/2007 7:01:40 AM

    @16

    I hadn't seen the new look, god it's awful. The second link is the way I last saw it looking. Please tell me that this is not how the beta is going to look!

  1. 18  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/20/2007 7:19:06 AM

    @17 see new post at { Link }

  1. 19  Richard Moy http://www.dominointerface.com | 2/20/2007 9:28:39 PM

    @11

    Ed,

    The Notes 8 UI is definitely much better. However, ...

    One of my beef is the menus. There is too much access in the menus and I was hoping that in this version as an ISV I could turn off a significant portion of the menus. Basic users have too much access and can create all sorts of problems. Since we treat the Notes client as an application client it would be nice to have control of what the users can access. And if possible modularized the different parts of the Notes client so that we as ISVs could decide what to give to the user. Maybe the capability is there, but from the demos I did at Lotusphere and the questions that I asked the developers, the ability seem to be not there.

    Other thing was promised in Lotusphere 2006 was full CSS support and update support of Javascript so we would have better control of the UI and again it is not there. I know this has nothing to do with the look of the UI but it is interrelated.

  1. 20  Bob Baehr http://www.bobbaehr.com | 2/21/2007 4:45:58 AM

    Greetings:

    I'll take a slight delay in release in favor of better code. I just hope that the public beta is not released in Febtober.

    Cheers!