RE: [TCLUG:8080] Lotus Notes ported to Linux

["Perry Hoekstra" <hoek504@hotmail.com>]

>A Notes/Domino server for Linux is essentially worthless to us at Carlson.
>We have an installed based of ~5k of winclients talking to NT Notes servers
>for totally non-email purposes - we've got our entire time tracking system
>as a Notes app, for instance. That in itself locks non-Winblows boxes out 
>of
>the possibility of runnning an alternative OS like Linux. While a Linux
>Notes server would be great for stability/uptime/performance, the cost to
>train the admins to run & support them offsets any short term advantage -
>and without a short term business advantage, you'll never convince the 
>empty
>heads upstairs.

You are looking at just sysadmin retraining, then I would say you have made 
a poor business case. I would also add in through: hardware (does it take 2 
NT boxes to meet performance 1 Linux box running Domino), remote 
administration, uptime that you mentioned.  Those have costs/savings 
associated with them and needs to be part of a business case.  If retraining 
was the only relevant factor, we never would have moved off MVS.

>And until we have a complete replacement of the capabilities
>of our Winblows workstations on Linux instead, we can't migrate a single
>one.
>
>Heck, even us IT people can't make a Linux box be our primary workstations 
>-
>we still need Notes among other things, like DFS. Which has about a
>snowball's chance in hell of happening. I still believe (unfortunately) the
>only way to conquer the server room is to conquer the cubicles first. Linux
>will never achieve primary marketshare in the server room if it's not in 
>the
>cubicles.

On this point, I disagree.  Unix (except in very small doses) has never made 
inroads into the cubicles, yet in an aggregate way, is the primary OS in the 
server rooms. How is this accomplished?  Primarily through emulation.  Years 
ago, it was NT's ability to emulate a Novell 3.x box.  Now, Linux uses Samba 
to emulate a NT box. Solaris and HP-UX have the ability to emulate NT boxes 
through AES (is that the right acronym?).  This way changes can be made in 
one area without a major wrench in the other.  Software has done this for 
years with wrappering, interfaces, and black-box development.

Perry Hoekstra
dutchman@mn.uswest.net

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