So Notes sucks eh? 24 Oct, 2004
Remember that cretinous “Lotus Notes sucks” page over at Uncle Dirtae? So many falsehoods and inane assertions in just one page, the guy must be proud. Indeed, a few of us chipped in to the thread after Ed mentioned it some months back, but we knew we were fighting a losing battle against the forces of sheer bloody-mindedness, incompetent IT departments and good old fashioned ignorance.
Well, it turns out that the author of that page has since had an interview with Lotus. Hmmm. “Go figure” as they say over there.
Lowell is a city where you'd definitely want to do a fair bit of research before deciding on where/whether to live. There are some nice areas; there are some not-so-nice areas. When I first worked in Westford (in the not-standard-cube-farm building), I was living in temporary housing in Lowell. A supermarket and small strip mall were the view out my window (oh, the river was in the distance, too). One night, I witnessed a (small) gang fight in the parking lot of the strip mall.
I eventually settled on living in Boston itself. The commute was long, but traffic tended to move so it wasn't -that- bad (except on Fridays). The benefits of being in the urban area way outweighed my grumbles about the drive.
I ended up here through BenPoole's blog… you might consider the point he's really making with his latest entry, which is that you've linked to an obsolete site criticizing Notes 4.6 (note that the original company that created the "hall of shame" doesn't even exist anymore). The work done by the people in the buildings you were in last week has substantially improved Notes, and presumably you either a) think so, or wouldn't be interviewing there or b) are a bit hypocritical.Ed Brill#
Sure, your blog is your own and you can curse and gripe as much as you deem necessary, but why can't we remember to discuss issues with politeness, fairness, and respect?
Every day, I pester my son with the notion of treating others just like how he would like to be treated, and that there are different ways to approach situations.
Last week, instead of telling me I was being a pain in the back side, he calmed me down by telling me I was being "Mister Grumpy-pants." He's six. I laughed and morphed back into "Daddy Nice-guy."
My synaptic misfires occur just as often as the next bloke, and I have many dislikes too. I'm sure there are better ways to communicate these feelings.
Group hug?
Dr. JoeJoseph Pollone#
The most frequent comment we get is "Outlook doesn't do it that way". We find it quite pathetic that a group of IT professionals can't adapt to new software or even look beyond the mail component to the extra functionality they can get.
The worse thing is that they have immediately gone back to the Outlook security blanket using the Outlook connector, which has other unfortunate side effects such as database corruption and strange connections to other people's database that they don't have access to.
I wish I could find out any information on these bizarre connector problems, but haven't found a thing yet. Anyone have any ideas?
Brad Stammers#
my two bits…. I'm an advocate because I've seen how it works. Nothing can touch it.Terry Henderson#
Perhaps there are any number of reasons why an IT group would want to switch to Notes, but I have to agree with the comment I read that says the sacrifice most users (who want an efficient email client) have to make for the few benefits isn't worth it. It is a productivity killer. Try using it through a VPN… sending a 2 line email can take minutes! Even though our company switched, they're already looking for a replacement for the Workgroup features so they can switch back to Exchange.
I'm sure Outlook and Exchange will improve as time goes on. With all of the fundamental problems I see in release 6.5, I'm guessing that Notes never will.Pat Kelly#
i read thru the comments at Uncle Dirtae's "Lotus Notes sucks" page too. i'm not a developer, but am president of a small company (about 80 people) that has been using notes now for almost 7 years. it's been one of the best investments i've made. the impression i get from Dirtae's commentators, bar none, is that they all were blessed with superior intellects in their IS/IT departments.
i have used the pc since 1982, gone thru countless iterations of windows, even more dead software leads, and discovered every last single piece of software and hardware out there requires that you use your brain.
lotus notes has given me collaborative software, CRM software, news aggregation (before there was RSS)--in fact that's the business i'm in, client contract management databases, an HR database, dedicated Webs for my clients ("extranets"), besides stable email and more. why? because i took the time to hire people that were more than cretins to manage the product…. and that includes both people who understand notes AND people who understand hardware/networking configurations.
my only worry has been, will IBM kill it (like microsoft more or less has done with foxpro), which seems not to be the case now. good for them.
with more savvy people putting together things like blogsphere and, yes, the Wiki, i think notes has a great future. i for one am glad.
david#
That’s true actually, there are some good points in those pages. It’s just a shame they’re all wrapped up in a lot of very bad ones!Ben Poole#
as for VPN, ours works flawlessly and FAST. it gets back to people who know what they're doing in your support department…david#
We all know that Notes is not just for mail, but if they're going to keep selling that as a benefit I think it could be improved. Then again, with the increasing use of browsers for Domino apps maybe it's too late to correct this….Lee#