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- or the other way around, Ed Brill? ~Naomi Quettoovitch 5.Dec.02 03:52 PM a Web browser Notes Client 6.0Linux - RedHat, Linux - SuSE
(Which should mean "huh" also :-)....)
Ed,
have you tried to look at it the other way: Is there any reason why lots of us who comprise the Louts Notes market should not buy $199 machines?
There are many millions of us using our PCs in administrative organisations for less demanding tasks such as word processing, simple spreadsheets, browsing and e-mail -- and some of us millions are smart enough to tie this information together with (somewhat more demanding) Lotus Notes. But a VIA C3 and 10 Gigs with ample RAM is sufficient power, and this is actually what we are buying today for our desktops.
But we are sitting there for several reasons (which I don't need to repeat here) wondering if we could make the move to Linux - and the # 1 reason why this option is blocked is Lotus/IBM -- in spite of all IBMs linux-halleluja. I simply can't believe this:
IBM/Lotus could have been in a unique position offering us a combination no other vendor could do:
1. Laptops with preinstalled Linux (but IBM has -- this year that Linux-applications really matures --scrapped its Linux-laptop project and awaiting Sun and others to catch up -- and pass...)
2. A Linux installation with a well tested groupware program, Notes, filling the gap in the available Linux applications range, (but somebody is waiting for a customer to come and say "Hey guys, here are X millions that you need to develop a Notes client for Linux, can you please start following us customers" -- leaving the ground to let the German government in some few months beat IBM to the market with "Kroupware". Where else in todya's IT market is there a void with such a market potential?
3. An added functionality to seamlessly integrate the groupware, Notes, with an office application suite using open document standards, like the free OpenOffice.org (it's some clever LS libraries and API work) -- but you are waiting for MS Office to take XML into use. Supporting the XML-document format now, (alternativly with a new SmartSuite version with good Word-filters), isn't that cutting into MS' most lucurative product?
We already pay for PCs/servers, for Windows, for Domino/Notes, and Red Hat's business model is that we shall pay moderatly for Linux, too. Why don't Lotus/Ibm think we will pay for a Notes version on Linux?
Where is the market vision, where is the leadership, where is the boldness and belief in your own product?
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. . . . - or the other way around, Ed Brill... (~Naomi Quettoov... 5.Dec.02) 
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