At long, long last: Lotus Notes on Linux

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Jul. 10, 2006

Opinion -- Lotus Notes is finally, and I mean finally, coming to the Linux desktop on July 24. While IBM has long shipped many of its server programs on Linux, this will actually mark the first time Big Blue has released a desktop Linux program.

As Peter Galli reported on eWEEK.com, it will run in the Eclipse environment. In fact, it seems that this is the first of the Eclipse-based versions of Notes. Future versions of Notes for Windows and Macintosh will also run on Eclipse.

IBM Lotus Notes on Linux will be released at the Notes Version 7 level. It will initiallyl support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 3. Within 90 days, the new Linux client will also support Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.

That's great, and that's good. But, you know what? I first heard about Lotus Notes being ported to Linux in 1999.

I really think it would have helped the Linux desktop, and Notes for that matter, if IBM's developers had gotten off their duffs and ported the Notes client over in the 20th century.

I've had a dysfunctional "Boston Red Sox prior to 2004" relationship with Notes for going on two decades, now. On the one hand, when you do it right, Domino/Notes makes a wonderful, powerful collaboration system. On the other hand, it can be a World Cup winning resource hog, and be an even bigger pig to manage.

Let's not even talk about trying to get users to use it as more than a glorified email client. I could go on for hours about what a mistake that is.

So it is that I'm glad, I really am, that Notes is finally going to make it to the Linux desktop. Evolution is a great email client, but it only scratches the surface of what Notes can do.

Well, I should say, what Notes can do when you do it right, anyway. I'm hoping that IBM brings all the goodness they brought to Notes 7 last year into this Linux-based, Eclipse-powered model. If they have, then I think Notes might finally start winning some new desktops again away from the "Security? What Security" madness of Outlook and Exchange.

To help make that happen, IBM is offering its Notes business partners up to $20,000 for migrating customers from Microsoft Exchange to IBM Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux desktop, in an initiative known as "Migrate to the Penguin."

As a Notes fan, I just wish I could have migrated to the penguin a lot sooner.

-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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