Comments on: Put the Outlook Killer in Eclipse

By: Cote'

Cote' — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:03:31 +0000

Thanks for the reply Richard, that clears it up a bit. I work in enterprise software myself, so with that explanation, I can get a clearer picture of how the (it seems) “umbrella concept”/platform of Workplace related to the product/features of Notes. As always in that sphere, however, all the different concept-ware is usually vague enough to be easily molded into whatever needs the dudes with the bags of cash want to hear…nonetheless, that’s a concrete enough explanation for me ;>

By: Richard Schwartz

Richard Schwartz — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 04:06:56 +0000

I’m not an IBMer, so I can’t speak with authority as to future product plans, but after a couple of years of really confusing messages from IBM what’s emerged in the past 18 or so months is this: Workplace does not replace Notes. Notes is part of Workplace. There’s another part of Workplace that is/was called Workplace Messaging, but it was never intended to displace Notes. It was aimed at low-need user populations that otherwise would not have email access at all. E.g., factory floor workers, retail store workers for nationwide chains, etc. (This part of the message from IBM, by the way, was actually very clear right from the start, but a lot of people either weren’t paying attention, or were deflected by FUD.) Notes will continue its independent existence for longer than any of us can make useful predictions about technology. Its on 7 now, and they’re talking about at least as far as version 10 at the moment, and that’s going to be past 2010. But Notes will evolve over time, to also offer the opportunity — for those that want it — to participate in the managed component environment that is what Workplace is all about. Don’t ask me what that part means though… the Hannover release will be an initial step toward it, but common sense says it’s going to be a moving target.

That’s my understanding of it, anyhow. Hope it helps.

By: Cote'

Cote' — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 21:02:15 +0000

Chris: I think you’re absolutly right. There’s a huge mental block about allowing data past your firewall. I recall when iPods and USB drives started get popular that IT people (or the trade rags at least) started freaking out about employees downloading all the super-secret data and “walking out the door” with it.

Richard: thanks for all the info. It sounds like it’ll be exciting times for Notes/Workplace. Could you clear up the difference between the two? I seem to have conflated them in my head, but I know there’s a difference.

By: Richard Schwartz

Richard Schwartz — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 07:44:06 +0000

># Make Workplace/Notes work with POP/IMAP…if it doesn’t already.

It does. It has for something like 8 or 10 years.

># Make Workplace/Notes work perfectly (90-95% so) with Exchange, esp. with calendaring, i.e., scheduling and accepting invites to meetings…if it doesn’t already.

Can’t say it’s perfect. Meeting invites do tend to work these days (depending on what versions you have installed on both sides), but AFAIK there’s no interoperability for viewing calandars or doing free-time queries. That’s not necessarily IBM’s fault, however. There have to be standards and APIs exposed in order for there to be interoperability.

# Create a Eclipse plugin that wraps up all of the above.

Ummm… that was announced about a year ago. Mabye more. It’s not released yet, but it should be soon. IBM has also announced “Hannover”, a.k.a. Notes 7.5, which will be a better integrated Eclipse-based Notes client, installed as one product. And as an added benefit: it brings the Notes client to Linux for the first time — without WINE.

# Give the plugin to the Eclipse Java Community.

When it’s released ;-)

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 15:16:07 +0000

> Try telling the Fortune 1xxx IT heads
> “we’re just going to use GMail for email,”
> and you’ll get some strange looks.

I think that there are two forces that want to keep the mail inside the firewall and locked down and out of the hands of The Google Monster. The first force is the IT Nazi’s, as you have described. The second force is likely more powerful than than the first, as they wield the power of FEAR, UNCERTAINTY and DOUBT. The Chief Counsel and the ubiquitous legal team would never allow all of those incriminating email messages to be hosted on the same servers being constantly rummaged through by Googles Search Engines!

By: Cote'

Cote' — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 08:08:49 +0000

Good question.

Outlook has:

A shared calander
An integrated back-end that you can play with (Exchange). For example, try setting up an auditing system with GMail. The GOOG isn’t going to let you mess with it.
Related to the above: GMail isn’t controlled by the IT department.
Keeping all the data on your own servers.
IT department mindshare, valid or not. Try telling the Fortune 1xxx IT heads “we’re just going to use GMail for email,” and you’ll get some strange looks.

As usual, these things don’t really matter unless you want them to. Or, in the case of the example in the second, you’re operating under regulations…or, your legal team’s interpretation of the regulations.
The idea that GMail would be just fine is quite sound. Steve Gillmor gets into pounding this point home in his psuedo-Socratic style from time-to-time on his podcasts. the only missing part is calendaring.
If you haven’t used Outlook/Exchange’s calendaring, it doesn’t stand out as a killer feature, but that’s really the only (so far) undefeated reason to use Outlook/Exchange.
Really, though, most of the companies out there could dump whatever email system they’re using and shift over the gmail, and everything would be fine. Most of the concerns above are just left over effects of the aging shrink-wrap software mindset. GMail, and other online emails, are great examples of Software as a Service: that is, software you (companies) treat more like electricity: you don’t have “Chief Electricity Officers” or “Electricity Departments,” you just have outlets and you pay your power bill every month. That is, you don’t have to pay for, run, and patch Exchange servers and Outlook clients; your employees just type in gmail.com and go.

By: warren

warren — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 07:45:49 +0000

windows/microsoft/outlook all suck.

what does outlook have that gmail doesn’t?