Ben Poole

Admins! Do you use a Mac?

Quote of the day:

BTW - Domino R8.5 mac client is really nice. Most Domino Admins I know use Macs.

A Domino fan called “Barryhughes1” is currently engaged in an exchange (see what I did there?) with someone who is most definitely not a Domino fan in the comments thread to a post at Macworld (Seven ways to push mail to the iPhone—without Exchange).

It’s quite entertaining seeing the to-ing and fro-ing. I particularly admire Barryhughes1’s willingness to tout non-shipping, feature-incomplete pieces like Xpages in an argument about end-user email interfaces. And then we have the quote above. Extraordinary!

Posted at 05:31 PST on 24 Nov 2008 | 

Comments

1. Using a MAC to be an Admin would in fact be next to impossible seeing as how Lotus does not offer a propper Admin Mac Client. I am sure that someone will say,"You can use the web based admin", but it just does not work like the Windows client does.
   
   I also read the statements by "Barry" and I would disagree, while I do agree the Mac is the best desktop OS around, and IBM has failed to see it like we all do. Windows is still the IBM choice for all their client based products. It's changing but there should have been an Admin client for Mac years ago, like the week after Apple dropped MacOSX.
   
   I can keep dreaming can't I?
   David Vasta, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
2. I am using a thinkpad but this week I am going to change it for a macbook . I´m part of the admins on my company and have to support lotus domino and mac users so will be a challenge for me. I´m planning to have a virtual machine running only to have lotus admin ready for anything :)
   Dennis, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
3. I use a macbook for fun and VMware Fusion with XP for Admin stuff.
   Jesper, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
4. I run a MBP and have a Parallels session for when I need to Admin, thankfully not that often.
   
   I suspect a lot of admins have an Admin PC where they do that stuff and then run a seperate client for themselves. (It's what I'd do if I had to admin full time).
   
   Peter Smith, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
5. Interesting, I thought it was just us nasty ole’ developers who fired up the VM for Domino…
   Ben Poole, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
6. Yeah, I've been bugging Maureen for a Mac developer client for years, but if you're going to do a Dev client there's no reason not to do an Admin client. The web interface can do some things, but it's very limiting in certain crucial functions, so I usually fire up Parallels and load the Windows client. Pogh.
   Turtle, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
7. No Mac here, only Windows. Would switch to a Linux admin client. Would rather see that coming before a Mac one, to be honest. Would rather stay away from VMs and would need one to run a local Domino server in OS X. In Linux naturally not the case
   Daniel Silva, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
8. I'm an admin and I use Mac. I must confess that I use VMWare Fusion for my administrator client but it works great and with Fusion's 2.0 release it works even better. Crazy as it sounds I find that the VM runs better than my Lenovo T61 (probably because the T61 has a corporate image on it with all kinds of performance sapping anti-virus, etc.)
   rob axelrod, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
9. VMWare fusion is great. But where is the value. You now have 2 OSes you are paying for not just one. I asked if I could just run Linux as a desktop OS and the question came not in the form of a NO, but can you show me the value over just running Windows? While I could break down the administrative cost and other things like that there was no need to argue that Linux or Mac as a desktop for a Domino Admin would be cheaper at all.
   
   I would love to Run Ubuntu on My shinny DELL D630 at work, but no one sees the value and really there is no considerable cost savings. I would not need a Windows OS License of an MS Office License but my company has already paid for them any way. In a small shop I think it would be easier to do, to bad WINE does not work better with Lotus products, or Crossover Office, too buggy.
   
   I for one would love to abandon Windows and do something else, there are plenty of very decent alternatives, but I think the time is not right now, but may be around the corner.
   
   David Vasta, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
10. David, true, but I enjoy using both. XP never ran so well on the “real” PCs I’ve used in the past, and when the OS plays up, I know I can just switch back to OS X and do something productive The integration offered by Fusion is astoundingly good, and OS X is still the mainstay for me—XP is only used for my Domino work.
    Ben Poole, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
11. Ben - Barry works with me in Bluewave
    
    All the admins use Macs -hence his statement
    Paul Mooney, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
12. I am running Fusion now on my Mac so I get it, but I am looking at it from a Corporate IT, simplification, cost cutting way is all.
    
    I would gladly move off Windows to Linux of Mac at work if I could but it ain't in the cards mate.....
    
    I do like the conversation that is going on here. We do need to put more pressure on IBM to do more with Mac and Linux and we also need to work together to built proof Domino and the Admin tool so that we can work now.
    
    Windows is dead, thanks to Vista, long live Apple and Linux.
    
    David Vasta, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
13. Even though I would love an admin client for the Mac.. Im against it. For a simple reason - Lotus dev resources.
    
    Admins can "live" with a windows admin client.. Don't go shuffling off developers for hundreds of days when the Notes 8 client still needs work done and the dev environment will undoubtedly need work with the new client.
    Paul Mooney, 24 Nov 2008 (#)
14. @13 agreed. @12: I’d love to see it, but it won’t happen, not in my lifetime
    
    @11: AHA! It all makes sense now!
    Ben Poole, 25 Nov 2008 (#)
15. And of course, if you're old-skool like me, you just open the NAB in the client and edit it from there anyway for 90% of stuff
    
    I can't say anything else about the Admin client, as I'm under IBM NDA.
    Warren Elsmore, 26 Nov 2008 (#)