Toby Richards wrote an opinion article for NewsForge, claiming that for him, Linux won't get mainstream until Evolution - or another capable Outlook-like client - gets optimized and offers 100% compatibility with Exchange. In the comments section of Newsforge readers offered more reasons as to why Linux is not mainstream, offering a view on their needs. My take: While for my personal, home usage of Linux my needs are different, I agree with Toby that companies won't switch their desktops if full Exchange compatibility isn't reached and if Evolution stops being the memory beast it currently is.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Many, many companies use Notes/Domino. For those, Domino runned on linux since years. Now, the Notes client is available as well.
ARMONK, NY - 10 Jul 2006: IBM today announced the availability of IBM Lotus® Notes® on Linux®, the industry's first business-grade collaboration software to support Linux on the desktop. Lotus Notes on Linux now provides millions of Lotus Notes users worldwide with software that enables an open desktop alternative to proprietary desktop operating systems.
The openness and flexibility of the Linux desktop combined with widespread availability of server software running on Linux has increased demand for tested and market-proven, desktop applications such as Lotus Notes. For the first time, IBM is delivering business-grade e-mail, group scheduling and thousands of high-value Notes applications that run on the Linux desktop. Combined with server support for Intel and mainframe Linux, IBM now offers end-to-end support for Linux on the Lotus Notes® and Domino® 7 collaboration platform.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/19940.wss
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-06-28
My husband's company of over 1000 employees are using Exchange, not Domino. The company is unix-friendly (many of their dev systems are running solaris, freebsd or linux), but they would not consider moving their desktops to linux without a good Exchange client. You see, their desktops are all running Windows...
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-10-19
Except that Notes is an absolute nightmare. Having had to support both Exchange and Notes in the past, I'll take Exchange any day.
Reliability aside, the fact is that Notes is losing ground, while Exchange is gaining. Couple that with MS having 60% of the market to IBM's 25% and it's clear where the focus should be.
Besides, it doesn't have to be one or the other. Provide support for both, then you don't have to worry about it.
Member since:
2005-07-02
That's true for companies that currently use Exchange, but what about companies that are using Lotus Domino? There's still quite a few of them. My own company moved from Exchange to Notes/Domino a few years ago, and even though Notes' interface can be a bit daunting at times, it's actually a robust (and extensible) groupware platform.