Has anyone heard anything more about the availability of the Notes 8 public beta? If they’re going to make February (as was announced in the Lotusphere Opening Session), they had better hurry, because there’s only one day left. I’ve read in the blogs that the scheduled availability has somehow morphed into Q1 instead of February. I can still live with a March date, but anything later than that is going to kill me. I need to show my client not only that their current apps will work with ND8, but also the new look of the UI, all of the new features, the productivity tools (ODF), etc.
Screenshots just don’t work for countering the FUD and propaganda that they’re being fed from the M$ lemmings. I need to show some live demos.
but if your client is in crisis mode such as this, I suggest you contact a Lotus salesperson, IT specialist, or me, and let’s see how we can address this through some live demos.
Being late can be understood - BUT NOT clearly communicating a new confirmed date is simply unprofessional. This is the worst marketing start Lotus can have since you annoy the loyal Lotus followers like myself. There is no excuse – I just lose faith that IBM learns to build up market momentum.Learn from Apple.
That’s a bit harsh Alex. This is a public BETA we’re talking about, isn’t it? I’m as impatient (as well as in need) for this public beta as anyone else. But, however painful it is for me to wait, I wouldn’t expect a “confirmed date” for a public beta. Ed’s blog stated that he “expects it won’t be more than a week or two more”. That’s a good enough timeframe for me to work with (and better than I expected at this point).
I think IBM screwed up by announcing a February timeframe at Lotusphere (in late January). If they weren’t reasonably certain that it was close to be ready, they should have announced a Q1 timeframe right from the start.
IBM publicly stated that they would deliver in Feb.
So if there is a delay - the least they can do is announce in Feb. when they now expect it.
Great program - good strategy - just the execution is not completed again. This is not against the programmers or the product - as always the fish stinks from its head and obviously IBM lacks people to deliver a complete picture.
Sorry – but I like Lotus and it hurts to see so many mistakes being made.
Well Ed, we are in a crisis mode. And our IBM reps are in the heat of this battle. You actually visited this client a while back. The problem I’m having is that I can’t counter the misinformation being spread by the M$ consultants (and M$ enthusiasts at the client site) regarding the impact of a Notes/Domino 8 upgrade. They’ve seen the demos and screenshots and seem to like the new features, new UI, etc. However, relying on misinformation and FUD, they’ve been convinced that their current apps won’t run, they’ll have to do a complete client/server rollout (i.e. no “co-existence” with prior releases), they’ll have to upgrade all of their hardware (servers and clients), they’ll have to provide extensive training to end users and developers, yada, yada, yada. I know all of this to be untrue, but I can’t convince them with canned demos, screenshots and articles. I need to build a Notes/Domino 8 test environment so that they can see it, touch it, and believe in it.
I don’t know what it is about these M$ folks, but they seem to have some sort of a “Jedi Mind Trick” thing going. All they need to do is wave their hands and chant from the talking points in their M$ FUD play book. The Dark Side of the Force is very strong here.
I would say the Dark Side of the Force is getting very strong in a lot of places. The MS consultants have you run that silly Application Analyzer that comes up and says everything can be converted for $25. The big bosses are infatuated with MS products for reasons I don’t fully understand, but I think in our case it has hurt our influence with them by advocating Domino, because they just don’t want to hear it. Domino feels a lot like Netware right now, a great product that is just not sexy to the people that ultimately make the decisions.
I am not anti-ms, as we do a lot of ms work too, just try to provide the solution that fits right given the conditions, but it seems like with Domino right now decisions are not made only on the facts.
I don’t have any answers, just my view from the trenches. Take it for what it is worth.
The Exchange Server team acknowledged at TechEd that the company has scrapped the Exchange “Kodiak” code name. Kodiak, which Microsoft first discussed in 2001, referred to the next major version of Exchange Server that was due to follow Exchange Server 2003. The most recent ship date Microsoft had assigned to Kodiak was 2006…
But before Microsoft delivers the next major version, the company will roll out a more minor interim release, currently known as Exchange Edge Services. Edge Services is due out in early 2005. Exchange Edge Services is akin to the “R2” Windows Server release, Akers acknowledged. R2, due out next year, will bundle together a number of bug fixes, feature packs and some additional new functionality. Edge Services will feature Microsoft’s new CallerID anti-spam technology, as well as version 2 of the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) capability that Microsoft is rolling out first as an add-on to Exchange Server 2003.
Q&A: Microsoft’s Thompson talks about Exchange plans
The next version of Exchange could come before the release of Longhorn in 2007
The Notes/Domino 8 beta 2 build will not be posted today. Internal process-wise, today is a big day as we will be making a go-no go call on the code itself, along with several other important readiness factors. After that meeting, we should have a solid date for when the public beta will be available. Though things could change, I expect it won’t be more than a week or two more.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007: Date/Time entries for previous years are adjusted by change to new DST rules
Microsoft has introduced additional architecture in its current Windows operating systems which make use of dynamic DST rules; this allows for different DST rules for different years. This new architecture is not directly compatible with applications, such as Notes/Domino, which were designed based on the previous Windows operating system architecture. An enhancement request to have Notes/Domino make use of the new Windows dynamic DST rule architecture has been submitted to IBM Quality Engineering.
Ask your sales rep!