Lotus Dr.

1 Randy Jenkins     10/5/2009 2:12:48 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

What planet are you from? Lotus notes is a pig. I have an idea, pick a look and feel. There are at least 20 different look and feels within the client. Looks like it was developed by 100 different people in a 100 different countries. Outlook destroys this memory pig hands down.

2 Denny Russell     http://www.lotusdr.com 10/5/2009 3:03:10 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

A planet where my users are more productive. OK, then give me some reasons why the Outlook client is better and makes the user more productive.

Does it have IM integrated in?

How about RSS feeds?

What about an easy way to get to all the Databases the users do on a daily basis?

Does it integrate with Quickr/Connections?

Either way, you haven't denied that simple things that I mentioned above that I can do in Notes that I can't do in Outlook.

3 Jim Casale     http://www.jimcasale.net 10/5/2009 4:50:34 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

Maybe it's just my imagination but doesn't Outlook 2007 have one look/style while in the Inbox and another while in an email? Which one is it? Ribbon or menu? Maybe it was developed by different people too ;-)

4 Randy Jenkins     10/5/2009 5:16:12 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

Does it have IM integrated in?

Yes Office Communicator

How about RSS feeds?

Who cares? Do do people still subscribe to them?

What about an easy way to get to all the Databases the users do on a daily basis?

My company was bought by a company that used lotus notes for years. We had a decision to make - Outlook that everyone loved or Lotus Notes that nobody liked.

The reason we did not choose outlook was that there was over 400 custom applications built on those databases. What a nightmare. Way to lock yourself into email system that takes 500 MB of Memory to run

Does it integrate with Quickr/Connections?

Sharepoint

Knock Knock. Who's there?...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Java

5 Jim Casale     http://www.jimcasale.net 10/5/2009 5:36:22 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

OCS is not integrated out of the box. You need to configure awareness on the multitude of OCS servers that are required to run OCS. Just don't complain when a Windows server patch causes issues with OCS.

But then you already knew that since you knew "everyone" loved Outlook, "everyone" hated notes, and "no one" uses RSS feeds anymore ;-)

6 Randy Jenkins     10/5/2009 7:47:49 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

There is more than one site dedicated to the hatred of notes. They even sell shirts and coffee mugs. I'm not a Microsoft apologist by any means, but they do know how make software intuitive. IBM needs to hire a few guys in square rimmed glasses and turtle necks and stop letting the programmers work on the UI.

Maybe we just have a bad implantation of the notes client. Maybe we can exchange emails and when I get my first one from you, I will know because it will be in red font with a crappy looking star.

Thanks for the posts. It's all good... :-)

7 Denny Russell     http://www.lotusdr.com 10/6/2009 6:29:47 AM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

Guys,

I appreciate the feedback and you are right, it's all good. We can all agree there is a love/hate for both. No one will ever win the debate.

I'll be the first to admit that over the years there have been some bad things about Notes but there are a ton of good ones too. The most recent versions (8.0x & 8.5x) are killer and give the users what they need. If you haven't tried it, I encourage you to check it out.

The problem is, most people don't understand how to use it. It's different from Outlook because it's not Outlook. .Over time, this site will become a help source for Lotus Notes, see earlier post { Link }

Either way, the original thought behind my post was simply to let out my frustration over a few simple things I've come to love about using LN and I found I couldn't do in Outlook.

8 Rupert Clayton     11/16/2009 1:45:53 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

Just in case anyone thinks this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison, my experience with Outlook 2007 is that all three of these issues remain.

#1 doesn't cause much of a problem for my work habits, but Send and File would make me more organized (if Outlook 2007 even gave me the option).

#2 is just crazy. Great, Outlook does give you the chance to save a draft when you close a modified message, but why not a Send option, too? This is an e-mail program, right?

#3 is still there, so far as I can tell. Every delivery failure sends me hunting for the originally sent message. No link, of course.

Along the same vein of missed integration opportunities, I would add:

#4 Why do replies provide no means to navigate to the message they respond to? (compare with doclinks in Notes replies)

#5 Why does my Inbox not provide any conversation context? (compare withthe threaded Notes 8.x Inbox available for nearly 3 years, or the Mail Threads view available for maybe 10 years).

And on performance:

#6 Why does searching my mail file require me to run the Windows Search service on my local PC? Why has Microsoft designed a mail search facility that balloons to 100% CPU utilization as it churns through all the XML config files used by every installed app?

#7 Given that the native client protocols used by Outlook aren't secure enough for insecure networks, access outside the firewall and VPN has to be via HTTPS. Is it acceptable to build a modern mail client that chokes on its network layer half a dozen times a day and requires the user to put a Task Manager stake through its heart before it will think about exchanging messages?

9 Random IBM’er     6/13/2013 3:46:38 PM  
Three reasons I LOVE my Lotus Notes client

Denny and Rupert...

Seriously, you believe that a good UI should be using the "Escape" key to Send?!?! In WHAT other app does Escape work as an action key? And while you're on the topic of keyboard shortcuts and productivity, how about talking about being able to move messages via a reliable keystroke? NOtes is incapable of doing this as the keyboard shortcuts change based on the focus of the message and the client does reliably reset the focus each time!!!! Meanwhile in Outlook, Ctrl+Shift+V works reliably.

Also speaking of productivity, how about reliably being able to process meeting invites, I get the following message about once a month for the last 4 years, and it's been posted as a bug on Lotus' site for at least as long, "You cannot process this notice because this meeting is not in your mailfile". And this message allows me to do NOTHING with it.

NOtes is the worst application I've ever encountered in my 20 years of employment. It's the reason that it's such a distant second!