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

[Michael Munnis <mmunnis@home.com>]

I do not see why having windows clients on the desktop would restrict your 
organization from using Lotus Domino Server for Linux.  Your win clients 
will be able to talk directly to the Linux server as they would a NT 
server, and it should be transparent to the user.  You existing 
applications can be placed on the domino linux box and run without 
modification (this has been the case with all the apps I have transferred 
and tested).  I can imagine some instances where problems might arise, 
perhaps if you use third party applications for things like database 
connection, etc.

If the admin is responsible for only Domino administration under Linux, 
then it should be a very quick learning curve (i say this from personal 
experience).  However, If that admin is responsible for the entire 
maintenance of the Linux OS as well, then this is a different story and 
could require training.

Right now, the performance enhancements that everyone is saying will come 
from running Domino on Linux as opposed to NT have yet to be realized. 
 Many of the messages in the Notes.Net forum from users testing Domino 
Linux are claiming that performance (mail routing and database performance) 
is anywhere from 3-5 times worse than under NT.  I'm keeping my fingers 
crossed that this is a result of the server being in an beta (alpha?) stage 
and that once the server is released for production, they will have ironed 
out the performance problems.

I agree with everyone about the Linux Client though - why Lotus would 
release a linux server without an appropriate linux client is beyond me. 
 If anything, an R5 client for Linux with POP3 support has the potential to 
push the Linux OS onto the desktop more than any other application out 
there (besides an office suite, and we have good ones for that already).

This is one of the most exciting product releases for Linux I have seen 
yet, and if Iris can boost the performance, then it could have the power to 
drive Linux into the enterprise arena.  I think it becomes even more viable 
when you consider the number of major vendors (especially database vendors) 
who have started to release enterprise scale applications (like DB2, 
Oracle, Sybase, etc).   Do I sound excited?  LOL!

Michael Munnis

-----Original Message-----
From:	Schoenhofen, Kelly [SMTP:KSchoenhofen@Carlson.com]
Sent:	Friday, September 03, 1999 12:55 PM
To:	'tclug-list@mn-linux.org'
Subject:	RE: [TCLUG:8080] Lotus Notes ported to Linux
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. 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.

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