Comment Call
There's was a comment yesterday left by someone by the name of Paul. I responded to the comment via email but it bounced back. I will quote the email (and the error message for Paul's sake below). I will also respond to another comment on Lotus Notes. The original comments are in italics and my responses are in bold.
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006
Subject: Re: [Misc. Ramblings] New Comment Posted to 'Taking Note'
From: Dan Seto
To: paul at rphconsulting dot comDan, I'm with you on pocket calendars vs PDAs. I did think of a good use for a PDA however, if I could ever get all of my music and book titles on one and then carry and use it I could save a lot of duplicate purchases.
This is true. But in any case, PDAs seem to be going down the tubes and maybe smart phones will take their place (when prices drop!)?
Re Lotus anything, they ticked me off clear back in 5.25 floppy days - probably with copy protection - and I haven't given them a thought since that luxury being one of the handful of real advantages of being a sole proprietor.
I hear you on that (although, back in the day, I did like Lotus 1-2-3 better than Excel). Perhaps someday we will wake up and switch to something else...
<paul at phconsulting dot com>: host mail dot rphconsulting dot com[66.211.137.31] said: 511 sorry, no mailbox here by that name (#5.1.1 - chkuser) (in reply to RCPT TO command)
Date: 10 Feb 2006
Subject: [Misc. Ramblings] New Comment Posted to 'Taking Note'
To: Dan Seto
From: myfirstname at jaffacake dot netDan,
Only one word springs to mind...clueless.
Mr. Rose: I am glad Lotus Notes/Domino works for you. Unfortunately, if the article I linked to is correct, it doesn't work for the great majority of people.
As to what I know, or don't know (i.e., "clueless"), I would appreciate your giving me the benefit of the doubt. I know how our system works better than you could possibly ever know because you aren't here.
You really have no idea of how Lotus Notes (note the 'S'), it's Domino Server and it's licensing works.
A few points to highlight my view:
1 - Email was never designed to carry emails, it was an after thought. We have this thing called FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on the internet that was designed for that. It's what people usually use when they download files.
"Email was never designed to carry email..." I'm sorry, but this doesn't make any sense. Email was never designed to carry email? If so, what was email designed to carry?
2 - Domino server reliability is one of THE best in the industry. My servers never fall over, period. If you do have stability issues, your admin team should seriously take advice from an expert; they clearly are out of their depth. It is easy to administer but you still need to know what you're doing! I recently took a server off-line for routine maintenance and it's uptime was 24/7 since my last scheduled maintenance...over 6months prior.
Perhaps your system is well run, I can't comment on what others get. All I can say is our server is down at least once a week. In fact, there is scheduled "maintenance" this afternoon that will take the system down for several hours. Whether it is scheduled or not, our server is not available 24/7. It is great that you can perform maintenance on your server without taking it down and therefore provide 24/7 service.
3 - Not enabling (or in fact disabling, it's on by default) - webmail functionality is unusual but it can put constraints on system resources as people switch to the 'thin-client' model.
I can't say what the impact is on the server but switching to webmail, via a browser, sure makes my PC run better because my browser doesn't use as much RAM nor CPU time as the Notes client does.
4 - Notes/Domino has a per-user license model. Switching to a web browser client does not remove the need for a client access license.
In reviewing the licenses at the IBM/Lotus site it is unclear as to what your point is. My browser doesn't cost anything. The Lotus Notes client does. What part of that is not clear?
5 - The Notes client will already run in Linux under WINE and a supported Linux native (no WINE) version is on the way very soon. I doubt this will encourage your company to switch desktop OS. The Domino server has run and been supported on Linux for quite some time.
I will assume here that you are not a regular reader of mine. I think this because you apparently don't know that I've been using Lotus Notes, via CrossOver Office, since I made the switch to Xandros Deluxe 3.01 Linux last year. I will also assume you do not run Notes in Linux because you would know just how badly this works if you did.
As to switching OS, I think you are confused. I don't know nor care what OS Domino runs on. I was referring to the desktop where I use Xandros Deluxe 3.01. If we could use our browsers to access Domino, this would remove one of the two large roadblocks to changing OS: email and Netware access (if you search my site, you will find instructions on accessing Netware 4.x servers while running Linux as a desktop OS).
Finally, in response to your last comment - "Just give something lightweight, fast, easy to use, reliable, and accessible over the Internet via a standard browser and I'll be happy."
We have that in our company, we call it Lotus Notes.
On a lot of other servers, they too have something like that, they call it Postfix, running on FreeBSD 6.x.
Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!