Hi, Had an incredible Lotusphere! And now I’m interested in dumping M$ in favor of a Linux client on my laptop. I’m an Admin and I need Notes client and the Admin and Development client too.
I have some experience with Linux but I want to know what would be the best “low maintenance” client to install.
I’m supporting 23,000 end users so they don’t let me have much “free time” This won’t be my only client so it won’t be a problem.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Fred
Subject: Just to restate the obvious…
…glad you had a great Lotusphere - wasn’t there myself, but have heard generally good comments.
On going to Linux - I’ll let others comment on best choice of client - I suspect that you will find strong advocates for all three that are supported.
One (probably unnecessary) reminder - you mention you are an Admin and need Admin client - Admin client, delivered as part of Domino Designer, only runs on Windows platforms.
Subject: Linux…
RH is a mature enterprise solution, so you got a hell of a resource with it and with Suse / RH, they have pretty mean deployment mechanisms.
Ubuntu is a better desktop I feel though and much more leaner than Suse & Red Hat, so I see it run faster and so do find a few hardware testers. It is also easy to get used to.
I have not any enterprise scenarios with Ubuntu, but there are loads of ways to get it rolled out. I am trying to get there though.
Ubuntu is very easy to get going and what I love it about it the most is the freedom… updates, get software, the biggest community and very accommodating to a load of hardware. Vodaphone even has 3G/HSDPA software for 32/64-bit Ubuntu.
Notes 8.5 on Ubuntu is more stable than on Windows strangely, and we have a load of customers on Windows… I see the difference daily.
Dual boot for starters, which is easy to get going, just boot off the CD and follow the set up wizard, which will sort out partitioning and the boot loader.
Don’t play with 64-bit yet because it takes a lot to get Notes to work on it… better you play later. Also there are a few snags, like Sun only released a beta 64-bit Java Browser plug-in in Dec 08, and Flash don’t work too well with overlays.
I had to go 64-bit for RAM for VMs and as folks say, you have to run the Admin & Designer in a Windows VM, but I prefer that because I do not change my gateway on my main OS when VPN’d in somewhere in the VM. I hated the idea at first but found it to actually be more practical and efficient. There are only a few things that need the Admin client, whereas you can make changes to DBs in the Linux client (Domino Directory) and you can still run the old R4 Console by creating a Smart Icon which runs : @Command([AdminRemoteConsole])
Don’t be afraid ! Go Linux ! It will give you a lot more freedom than Mac and M$ will.
Subject: Thanks Everyone
I may load Ubuntu and a Notes client then an XP VM with all my other software that I need for my job. I’m old school so I use my client for a lot of what I do. I once had a guy show me how to create a shortcut in Notes that launched the Admin client, But I don’t remember how he did it…
Fred
Subject: Re : Old school
I think it was “\nlnotes.exe /ADMINONLY” in the shortcut. You shouldn’t need to if you install the Admin, Des and Notes clients in a VM.
XP actually runs very well in a VM if you load the add-ons that the Host Software Vendor supplies. Sun’s xVM is bloody good now, but didn’t get Drag 'n Drop between HOST to GUEST as I do with VMWare Wkstation. Also set the performance to “Optimise for Performance” in the System Properties to get the XP RAM usage below 200MB.
Subject: OSX
OSX is by far the best OS. I run Notes OSX client for day to day and run Parallels to run WinXP client/Designer/Admin as well as a Linux Image. Our Domino Server is run on Red Hat and we are playing with Quickr/Connections on Linux.
But all are managed from OSX via Parallels!
We are a non-M$ shop. Except for Designer and Admin.
brent
Subject: My Linux expert friend says Ubuntu
He says it’s the easiest to have ‘just work’ of the Linux flavors. I’m running it with Domino 8.5 server under it and Vista for the clients.