Re: Web and Notes

Fisher Mark (FisherM@is3.indy.tce.com)
Tue, 06 Sep 94 05:29:00 PDT


Brian Behlendorf writes in
<Pine.3.89.9409021451.Q24281-0100000@get.wired.com>
>My personal opinion is that, if development efforts go correctly, WWW
>software and applications will make Notes a dinosaur.
...
>We tried giving Notes a spin here - bought an OS/2 box for it and spent 6
>days of valuable sysadmin time installing it. Once up, the Mac clients
>were constantly crashing and had huge memory requirements. I have a
>deep admiration for places that actually got it installed and use it - we
>don't.

Notes seemed to us like a great idea in search of a marketing department.
While everyone else is going towards concurrent-user licensing, Lotus (and
other document management applications, alas) persist with the strategy of
"price-per-potential-user". When projects have around 600+ potential users
(like ours!), Notes becomes an expensive solution. Especially for the
"skunk-works" projects *I* have been working on...

Unless Lotus learns and learns quickly how to market Notes in today's PC
market rather than the market of early 1980's minicomputer software, Lotus
Notes will be seen as a seminal effort in PC groupware defeated by marketing
out-of-tune with the customer base of its day.
======================================================================
Mark Fisher Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@indy.tce.com Indianapolis, IN

"Just as you should not underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon
traveling 65 mph filled with 8mm tapes, you should not overestimate
the bandwidth of FTP by mail."