[Brit Ben]

All,

My company is daft.

We use meeting maker as a time/meeting scheduler, today. V6.0.6 or something. It has been decreed (in a very dilbertesque manner) that we shall move to Lotus Notes. (YUCK). Meeting Maker has a native Mac OS X version under development, but Client v7.x cannot connect to server v.6.0.6. (so much for backwards compatibility) Lotus, I have no idea.

I am a mac user in a sea of PC heads. I use a palm pilot. I want a simple thing (yeah right). I would like a native OS X version of anything that can either talk to a meeting maker server running v 6.0.6 or to a lotus domino/notes server, and somehow keep my godsend little palm updated.

I gladly accept Ideas.

Ben.

[mmarcos]

Notes actually has certain advantages to it in corporate environments, the best being replication and security, followed I believe by RAD and the abilty to post rich text to the web transparently.

I would say your best bet is to get the Domino servers to talk iMap on the email side, and you can get vCal and vCard on the calendar and contact sides. This will widen your options on the desktop (and mobile devices, too).

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by mmarcos:
<STRONG>Notes actually has certain advantages to it in corporate environments, the best being replication and security, followed I believe by RAD and the abilty to post rich text to the web transparently.

I would say your best bet is to get the Domino servers to talk iMap on the email side, and you can get vCal and vCard on the calendar and contact sides. This will widen your options on the desktop (and mobile devices, too).</STRONG>

Thanks for the input, now I'm looking into this, but I would love to know if there is a vCal / vCard implementation for Mac OS X !

Cheers,
Ben.

[mmarcos]

I posted that question in this forum recently.

Originally posted by Brit Ben:
<STRONG>

Thanks for the input, now I'm looking into this, but I would love to know if there is a vCal / vCard implementation for Mac OS X !

Cheers,
Ben.</STRONG>

Entourage X has greatly improved iCal support. It does vCard too.

[lcampbell]

Lotus Notes has a Mac client as well as a Windows one. Don't think the Mac client supports Palm synchronization, though.

Notes is actually a very cool product, but the Mac client tends to suffer from a lack of attention. What's there works well, but they leave quite a lot out (like designer, palm sync, etc.)

[ddregs]

I suggest you to use Notes 5.0.8 (or later, when they'll release it) on Mac and no version before this one.

Lotus Domino is the server technology, and as mmarcos correctly stated, is very strong on the security, replication and web technologies.

Lotus hasn't stated if and when they'll release an OS X native version of the product. They are in the beta phase of the new version, named R.Next, of Lotus Domino. They have an OS 9 native version of the application, you can find it at www.notes.net.

The major issues with this software are:
- Mac support is very very poor. They took EIGHT releases to fix an incompatibility with ATM (5.0.8), and a year and a half for that.
- While with release 5 you can actually develop applications, R.Next hasn't a designer for the Mac Platform.
- OS X support is NULL at the moment. Lotus are following what the market will say, and therefore will always be late.

Draw your own conclusion (keep in mind I work as a Lotus Notes consultant...)

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

Regards!

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by ddregs:
<STRONG>Lotus hasn't stated if and when they'll release an OS X native version of the product. They are in the beta phase of the new version, named R.Next, of Lotus Domino. They have an OS 9 native version of the application, you can find it at www.notes.net.

The major issues with this software are:
- Mac support is very very poor. They took EIGHT releases to fix an incompatibility with ATM (5.0.8), and a year and a half for that.
- While with release 5 you can actually develop applications, R.Next hasn't a designer for the Mac Platform.
- OS X support is NULL at the moment. Lotus are following what the market will say, and therefore will always be late.
</STRONG>

You make some valid points. Sadly this is one area that is really needed in the mac world to gain business credibility.

Meeting maker is nice, but just doesn't cut it.
I don't personally like notes either as an application or a concept, it is far too proprietary. I have no intention of installing notes as my only classic application either.

But thanks for the help.

Ben.

[ddregs]

Brit Ben,

as a web developer and system integrator, I can tell you some very strong points about the product:
- very fast application developing: you can actually build a very complex flow application with electronic signatures and integrated mail messages in 2 hours, no joke here;
- the mail system is very strong and much more customizable than every Microsoft Exchange solution: you can check your mail via POP, IMAP, Lotus Notes client, via Web and via Microsoft Outlook. (yes, Outlook and not Outlook Express). It also has Lotus EasySync Pro to synchronize it with a Palm or a PocketPC.
- when you develop an application for a client it is automatically translated as a dynamic web application, and with two more hours you have a workin' internal web site.
- you can synchronize data in and out with a relational database using DECS, a technology built into the server, so you can have a web application transferring data with Oracle.
- you can develop applications using the internal formula language, or using LotusScript, very very similar to Visual Basic, or you can develop with Java.
- the replication technology is the most reliable implementation seen on the PC world, I'm using and lovin' it for 11 years now.

So far, this is the most open system around.
R.Next is introducing lots of changes, first of all is the use of JSP to produce web applications.

The bad point is the Mac platform is the 50% version of the program:
- much slower than the PC counterpart;
- you cannot have a preview of the web application locally, they didn't develop an http cgi module or anything to render locally the pages, though the Mac OS platform has the local web server for 3 years now;
- you cannot write anything in Java;
- the replication module for the Palm is inexistant on Mac
- on R.Next there won't be the possibility to develop application.

So far, since the product is much more oriented to produce web application, not having a designer on Mac locks out any future choice of Lotus Notes as a good platform to develop application.

What will I use a client for? To read mail? Just use the server as a POP and use Entourage. Notes Applications? I'll use them with a browser wherever I can.

Bad bad move Lotus... you are getting IBMized day by day....


Best regards

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by ddregs:
<STRONG>Brit Ben,

as a web developer and system integrator, I can tell you some very strong points about the product:

What will I use a client for? To read mail? Just use the server as a POP and use Entourage. Notes Applications? I'll use them with a browser wherever I can.

Bad bad move Lotus... you are getting IBMized day by day....


Best regards</STRONG>

Hehe. Thanks. It sums up my problems.

1) I dislike using a web browser for the majority of my work. It is slow, and amateurish, and the interfaces normally suck.

2) My company had to be really pushed to implement pop support. one of their main reasons for moving to notes was cited as email storage issues (duh)

3) I must have pda sync. I travel too much to be without a pda.

4)mac support... well not supported.

IBM to Notes :
resistance is futile... you will be assimilated.

Ben.